US President Donald Trump should not stay in office even for one more day, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has argued, calling for his immediate removal after crowds of the president’s supporters stormed the Capitol.
Schumer denounced the Wednesday chaos that saw hundreds of Trump supporters interrupting the joint congressional session by storming the Capitol as nothing short of “an insurrection against the United States.”
He also accused Trump of “inciting” the crowd in a series of Twitter posts.
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This president must not hold office one day longer.
Chuck Schumer@SenSchumer
What happened at the U.S. Capitol yesterday was an insurrection against the United States, incited by President Trump. This president must not hold office one day longer.
11:48 AM · Jan 7, 2021
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The Senate Democratic leader then said that the “quickest and most effective way” to oust Trump would be through the 25th Amendment.
The amendment allows a vice president to immediately assume office as long as a sufficient number of either “principal officers” (cabinet secretaries) or members of Congress together with him declare in a written form that the president is “unable” to discharge the powers of his office.
“It can be done today,” Schumer said.
In case Vice President Mike Pence and the members of the Trump administration “refuse to stand up,” Congress should try to impeach Trump, the senator added. The House already did so back in December 2019, but the president was eventually acquitted by the Senate.
Schumer, however, is not the first US lawmaker to call for Trump’s removal from power in the wake of the Wednesday riot.
Earlier, a slew of Democrat lawmakers, including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) called for his impeachment.
Every single Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee also signed a letter to Pence calling on him to invoke the 25th Amendment.
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Published by Rt.com
Republished by The 21st Century
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