WASHINGTON | The Democrats advanced, Monday, towards the opening this week of a second impeachment procedure against Donald Trump, accused of having “incited the violence” which struck the Capitol.
Without waiting for this infamous procedure, the opposition calls in parallel its vice-president, Mike Pence, to remove him from his functions.
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The Republican billionaire is threatened, at 74, with a sanction that would go down in the history of the United States and could mortgage his political future: to become the first American president to be twice indicted in Congress (impeached) in an impeachment proceeding.
President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in under high guard on January 20 to succeed him, precisely on the steps of the Capitol, seat of the US Congress.
“I’m not afraid,” despite the risks of further pro-Trump protests, the Democrat said on Monday.
He called for the prosecution of all those who were implicated in acts of “insurgency” last Wednesday, during the violence that left five dead and deeply shaken the country.
The former vice-president of Barack Obama has again avoided commenting on the merits of an impeachment procedure so close to the end of Donald Trump’s mandate.
“I have already made it clear that President Trump should not be in office. A point that’s all, ”he hammered.
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Trump, “imminent threat”
A “disturbed” Donald Trump, representing an “imminent threat”: the Democrats in Congress are determined to hasten his exit. Without waiting.
Controlling the majority in the lower house, the opposition carried out double action on Monday.
On the one hand, parliamentarians have filed an indictment against Donald Trump.
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The House will consider it on Wednesday, and is expected to vote that same day.
Backed by a vast number of Democrats, and with possible support from Republicans, it should be easily adopted. This vote will mark the formal opening of the second impeachment procedure against the American president.
But the doubt remains on the course, and the outcome, of the trial which will then have to take place in the Senate, today with a Republican majority. Democrats will take control of the Upper House on January 20, but will need the rallying of many Republicans to achieve the two-thirds majority needed for his conviction.
A trial would also risk hampering legislative action by Democrats at the start of the Biden presidency, by monopolizing Senate sessions.
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Silence from Mike Pence
At the same time, Democrats want to approve a resolution on Tuesday evening calling on Vice President Mike Pence to remove the president from office.
This text urges him to invoke the 25e amendment of the US Constitution, declaring him, with the support of his principal ministers, unfit to perform his function.
As long as they do not remove him from power, the “complicity” of the Republicans with Donald Trump will “endanger America”, thundered the powerful Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Monday.
Accusing the tenant of the White House of having “incited a murderous insurgency”, she reiterated her ultimatum to Mike Pence to respond “within 24 hours” in the House, after the adoption of this resolution.
Long loyal to the Republican billionaire, this conservative has so far shown no desire to trigger this device.
Trump expected in Texas
According to the Democrats’ indictment, Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to march on Capitol Hill last Wednesday where Constitutionally bound Mike Pence solemnly announced the results of the November 3 presidential election.
A victory for Joe Biden that Donald Trump never wanted to accept.
The outgoing president “incited the violence” and “seriously endangered the security of the United States”, it is written in the indictment.
With “his conduct”, Mr. Trump “has demonstrated that he will continue to pose a threat to national security, democracy and the Constitution if he is allowed to remain in office,” continue its authors.
Isolated, ousted from Twitter and other major social networks that want to avoid new incitement to violence, Donald Trump does not seem ready to abandon the Oval Office before the end of his mandate.
He plans to travel to Texas on Tuesday to praise his immigration policy and the construction of the border wall with Mexico.
But around him, the emptiness is created. Several members of his cabinet and White House officials have resigned since the violence.
Latest Monday: Acting Homeland Security Minister Chad Wolf. If he did not explain his departure, this official criticized last week the “tragic” invasion of the Capitol.
Criticized for having delayed, last Wednesday, to send the National Guard, the Pentagon this time authorized the deployment of 15,000 troops in the American capital for the inauguration ceremony of Joe Biden.