Pelosi: House will begin impeachment action on Monday

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Sunday night that the U.S. House will move forward Monday with legislation to impeach President Donald Trump following last week's deadly siege at the Capitol by a mob of his supporters.

Pelosi, in a letter to her caucus, said House Democrats will introduce legislation Monday calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. Pence has yet to heed those public calls for removal. If Pence does not respond within 24 hours, House Democrats will introduce impeachment charges against Trump, Pelosi said in her letter.

"In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both," Pelosi said. "As the days go by, the horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action."

Pelosi's letter came as a second Senate Republican — Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennyslvania — called for Trump to step down from office, and at least two other Republicans said they would consider voting on articles of impeachment.

Though House Democrats are moving swiftly to impeach Trump, House leaders may wait until after President-elect Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office to transmit the articles to the Senate for a trial, said Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House.

Clyburn (D-S.C.) told CNN’s "State of the Union" the decision to wait would allow the Senate to focus on confirming Biden’s cabinet nominees as he assumes power just days after pro-Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol looking to disrupt the certification of his victory.

"We'll take the vote that we should take in the House, and [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi] will make the determination as to when is the best time to get that vote and get the managers appointed and move that legislation over to the Senate," Clyburn said.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) in a Sunday tweet said he and Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and David Cicilline (D-R.I.) will introduce an "article of impeachment" charging Trump with "incitement to insurrection."

Trump has faced growing calls from both congressional Democrats and a handful of Republican leaders to step down over his role in last Wednesday’s attack on the U.S. Capitol, when scores of his supporters, at his urging, marched to Capitol Hill looking to stop Congress’ certification of the Electoral College votes. In video captured from the rioting, chants of "Hang Mike Pence" could be heard from the crowd.

Pelosi (D-Calif.), in an interview with CBS' "60 Minute,s" defended the push to impeach Trump for the second time in his presidency, saying Trump "has done something so serious that there should be prosecution against him."

Toomey (R-Pa.), appearing on both CNN and NBC’s "Meet the Press," also raised the prospect of Trump facing "criminal liability" for his role in Wednesday's rioting. The president in his speech to supporters on Wednesday urged them to march to the Capitol building "to fight" and "show strength."

Toomey on Sunday became the second Senate Republican to call on Trump to resign "and go away as soon as possible."

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Saturday was the first Senate Republican to publicly call on Trump to resign, and Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) has said he would consider impeachment.

"It does not look as though there is the will or the consensus to exercise the 25th amendment option," Toomey said of the calls for Pence and the Cabinet to invoke a constitutional amendment to remove Trump from office. "I don't think there's time to do an impeachment. There's 10 days left before the president leaves anyway. I think the best thing would be a resignation."

The top federal prosecutor in Washington — Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin — in a conference call with reporters last week did not rule out the possibility of charging Trump. Sherwin said the Department of Justice will consider pursuing charges against "all actors" who played a role in the unprecedented breach of the Capitol building last week.

Aside from voting on impeachment, the Senate could hold a separate vote disqualifying Trump from ever holding federal office again, a prospect Toomey said he supported.

The move, which would only require a simple majority of 51 votes, would prevent Trump from running for president in 2024 as some of his allies have suggested. Democrats, who recently picked up two Georgia Senate seats, will gain control of the Senate on Inauguration Day once the chamber reconvenes and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris becomes the chamber's tie-breaking vote.

"There is one very, very important form of accountability, I think the president has disqualified himself from ever certainly serving in office again," Toomey said on CNN.

Other one-time Trump allies also indicated their support for impeachment.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who served as a Trump transition adviser, told ABC’s "This Week" he believed Trump’s actions were impeachable offenses.

"If inciting to insurrection isn’t, then I don’t really know what is," Christie said.

Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, appearing on Fox News Sunday, did not discount the possibility that some congressional Republicans would consider voting for impeachment.

"I think it’s different now than the impeachment last year ... I think it will be looked at differently by members of the House and Senate," said Mulvaney, referring to Trump’s 2019 impeachment by House Democrats on charges of obstruction of justice and abuse of power over his call urging Ukraine’s president to open a politically motivated investigation into Biden during the presidential campaign.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a Trump critic, told ABC’s "This Week" he would support impeaching Trump, but said he hoped before Congress would take that step, Pence and the Cabinet would act to invoke the 25th Amendment.

"I think the best thing for the country to heal would be for him to resign. The next best thing is the 25th Amendment. That's why I call on Vice President Pence to do it," Kinzinger said.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) told "Face the Nation" he would not join the calls for Trump to resign.

"The president should be very careful over the next 10 days that his behavior is what you'd expect from the leader of the greatest country in the world," Blunt said. "My personal view is that the president touched the hot stove on Wednesday and is unlikely to touch it again."

Trump is expected to travel to Alamo, Texas, on Tuesday to deliver a speech on his border security record, according to the White House Press Office.

Congressional Democrats appearing on the Sunday political talk show circuit argued impeachment was essential to send Trump and future presidents a signal that an incitement to violence will not go unchecked.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), appearing on "This Week," said: "Every minute and every hour that he is in office represents a clear and present danger, not just to the United States Congress but frankly to the country."

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," said there was a "pandemic of division and distrust" spurred by Trump’s unfounded insistence that the election was "stolen."

"Many of my Republican colleagues are now calling for healing and for us to come together," Coons said. "I'll tell you that there can only be reconciliation with repentance. And I think the single most important thing that Republicans in Congress who helped facilitate this widespread conspiracy that some how this election was stolen ... is to stop those lies, and to persuade their followers and their supporters that President-elect Biden is the duly elected president of the United States."