Ten days from the end of his mandate, Donald Trump is facing more and more resignation calls, including from the Republican camp, to avoid a difficult impeachment procedure in the midst of a political, health and economic crisis.
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After Republican Senators Ben Sasse and Lisa Murkowski, Senator Pat Toomey ruled Sunday on CNN that a resignation of the president “would be the best option”.
Since the presidential election of November 3, which he lost, Donald Trump “has sunk into a level of madness (…) absolutely unthinkable”, he added.
“The best thing for the unity of the country, it would be that he resigns”, added on ABC Alan Kitzinger, elected to the House of Representatives and first Republican to have called on Thursday to declare the president “unfit” to occupy his functions.
Isolated in the White House, released by several ministers, cold with his vice-president Mike Pence, the American billionaire gives no sign that he is ready to resign, according to his advisers quoted by the American press.
Ousted from Twitter and other major social networks that want to avoid further incitement to violence, Donald Trump now has limited alternatives to communicate with the general public.
Authorities continue to search for pro-Trump protesters who have issued death threats against Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – the 2nd and 3rd highest ranking officials in the State – in the assault on the Capitol on Wednesday.
A tall metal barrier was erected around the building and law enforcement was increased until Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, which Mike Pence said he would attend.
“Desecration”
Nancy Pelosi, who has vowed to take action if the outgoing president does not step down, on Saturday called on her troops to return to Washington this week to decide how to sanction Mr. Trump’s responsibility for the deadly assault on Capitol.
In an open letter to elected officials, she did not mention a possible impeachment, but she considered “absolutely essential that those who led this assault on our democracy be held responsible”. “It must be established that this desecration was instigated by the president,” she added.
A text of impeachment introduced in the House of Representatives, signed by at least 180 parliamentarians, accuses the Republican President of having “deliberately made statements” which encouraged the invasion of the Congress building by his supporters Wednesday.
According to elected Democrat James Clyburn, the motion could be discussed this week. “It may be Tuesday or Wednesday,” he told CNN.
But this is a long and complicated procedure and several voices have been raised in the Democratic camp to judge that it could slow down the plans of President-elect Joe Biden, who has made the response to the Covid-19 pandemic his priority.
“Let’s give the president-elect 100 days” at the start of his term to allow him to tackle the most pressing issues, Clyburn suggested. “We could perhaps introduce the articles (of indictment) a little later”.
Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, for his part, said on CNN that an impeachment procedure after January 20 “would not make sense”.
“I’m not even sure it’s possible to remove someone who is no longer in power,” Toomey said.
Still, the launch of a second “impeachment” would leave an indelible mark on Donald Trump’s record: no American president has suffered this dishonor.
In power since 2017, Donald Trump has already been targeted in Congress by an infamous impeachment procedure, opened by Nancy Pelosi at the end of 2019 on the accusation of having asked a foreign country, Ukraine, to investigate his rival Joe Biden. He had been acquitted in the Senate, with a Republican majority, in early 2020.