Democratic lawmakers called on Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment on Wednesday and remove President Trump from office, blaming the president for inciting the rioters that violently breached the Capitol building.
“Dear @VP @Mike_Pence: You need to start the 25th Amendment. @realDonaldTrump is detached from reality,” wrote Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.)
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) tweeted, “Donald J. Trump should immediately be impeached by the House of Representatives & removed from office by the United States Senate as soon as Congress reconvenes. This is dangerous & unacceptable.”
Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) wrote: “This is outrageous, and the president caused it. We should impeach and convict him tomorrow.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) appeared to agree, sharing on Twitter that she was drawing up articles on impeachment.
“Donald J. Trump should be impeached by the House of Representatives & removed from office by the United States Senate,” wrote Omar. “We can’t allow him to remain in office, it’s a matter of preserving our Republic and we need to fulfill our oath.”
Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) simply tweeted out, “Impeach,” after the Capitol was secured by authorities.
In a statement, Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) similarly called for Trump’s removal from office, calling the rioters “domestic terrorists.”
“The President has been encouraging these domestic terrorists since before the election,” said Wexton. “He could have stopped them at any moment, but instead he whipped them into a frenzy and sicced them on the Capitol.
“The Cabinet must remove him today or the House must impeach.”
The 25th Amendment states:
“Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”
Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives for abuse of power at the beginning of last year, though he was acquitted by the GOP-controlled Senate.
In an unprecedented move, the National Association of Manufacturers released a statement on Wednesday supporting the proposed move.
“Vice President Pence, who was evacuated from the Capitol, should seriously consider working with the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to preserve democracy,” the organization said in its statement.
“This is not the vision of America that manufacturers believe in and work so hard to defend. Across America today, millions of manufacturing workers are helping our nation fight the deadly pandemic that has already taken hundreds of thousands of lives,” it added.