By Luke Broadwater
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California mentioned Friday that the House would transfer to question President Donald Trump over his position in inciting a violent mob assault on the Capitol if he didn’t resign “immediately,” interesting to Republicans to affix the push to power him from workplace.
In a letter to members of the House, the speaker invoked the resignation of Richard Nixon amid the Watergate scandal, when Republicans prevailed upon the president to resign and keep away from the ignominy of an impeachment, calling Trump’s actions a “horrific assault on our democracy.”
“Today, following the president’s dangerous and seditious acts, Republicans in Congress need to follow that example and call on Trump to depart his office — immediately,” she wrote. “If the president does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action.”
Pelosi additionally mentioned she had spoken with Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about “preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes.”
A spokesman for Milley, Col. Dave Butler, confirmed that the 2 had spoken and mentioned the overall had “answered her questions regarding the process of nuclear command authority.”
Some Defense Department officers have expressed anger that political leaders appeared to be attempting to get the Pentagon to do the work of Congress and Cabinet secretaries, who’ve authorized choices to take away a president.
Trump, they famous, continues to be the commander in chief, and until he’s eliminated, the navy is sure to comply with his lawful orders. While navy officers can refuse to hold out orders they view as unlawful, they can’t proactively take away the president from the chain of command. That could be a navy coup, these officers mentioned.
The letter from Pelosi got here as momentum for impeachment was quickly rising Friday amongst rank-and-file Democrats throughout the social gathering’s ideological spectrum, and a handful of Republicans supplied potential assist.
Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the No. 4 Democrat, mentioned that if Vice President Mike Pence wouldn’t invoke the twenty fifth Amendment to forcibly relieve Trump of his duties, Democrats had been ready to behave on impeachment by the center of subsequent week.
An aide to Pelosi mentioned Friday that she nonetheless had not heard from Pence, regardless of placing intense public stress on him to behave. But Pence was mentioned to be against doing so, and he or she was planning to maneuver forward.
