WASHINGTON | Donald Trump goes to Texas on Tuesday for his first outing since the violence on Capitol Hill, clearly signaling his desire to stay in the White House until the end of his term, despite pressure from Democrats in Congress who demand his immediate departure.
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In the turmoil eight days from the end of his mandate, he met Monday evening his vice-president Mike Pence who apparently decided to make – for the moment – common front with him against the Democrats, rejecting the calls to remove him from office with the 25th amendment to the Constitution.
The US president’s departure for Alamo, in South Texas, is scheduled for 10 a.m., but the White House has remained particularly low-key on the day’s program in this large state bordering Mexico.
Objective of this trip according to the executive?
“To mark the completion of over 640 km of border wall – promise made, promise kept – and showcase the efforts of his government to reform a dysfunctional immigration system.”
We are far, very far, from the “great, magnificent” wall promised by Donald Trump in the campaign in 2016.
Of this total, only about twenty kilometers correspond to the construction of a wall where there was no physical barrier previously. The rest corresponds to improvements and / or reinforcements of existing barriers.
And Mexico never paid for the wall, as the real estate mogul had promised.
In Washington, a procedure that would go down in history is being prepared, and could jeopardize the possible political future of Donald Trump.
He could indeed become the first US president to be twice impeached in Congress in impeachment proceedings.
The House will consider the indictment on Wednesday and is expected to vote on that same day.
“Second impeachment procedure”
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.
At the same time, Democrats want to approve a resolution Tuesday evening calling on Vice President Mike Pence to remove the president from office.
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 President 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.
With his Monday night meeting in the Oval Office, Mike Pence made it clear that he would not go down that route.
The face-to-face meeting between the two men marks a spectacular turnaround as their relations had been strained since January 6.
Despite pressure from the tenant of the White House, Mike Pence announced that day in a letter that he would not oppose the validation of the presidential election results before Congress, sparking the fury of the president and of his supporters.
“Mike Pence did not have the courage to do what he should have done to protect our country and our Constitution,” Donald Trump tweeted, as a horde of his supporters invaded the Capitol.
Videos posted on social media showed a compact crowd chanting “Hang Mike Pence” outside the Capitol.
President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in under high guard on January 20, right on the steps of the Capitol, seat of the US Congress.
Criticized for having delayed, last Wednesday, to send the National Guard, the Pentagon this time authorized the deployment of 15,000 soldiers for the inauguration ceremony.
“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.