Pelosi, Democrats lay plans for swift Trump impeachment

WASHINGTON — House Democrats moved closer to impeaching President Donald Trump, with an article of impeachment expected to be filed Monday, after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a lengthy discussion with her caucus Friday.

Democrats continue to deliberate taking the extraordinary step of impeaching Trump for the second time in a year but would be prepared to do that as an option, Pelosi said in a statement after the three-and-a-half-hour conversation.

"It is the hope of members that the President will immediately resign," Pelosi said. "But if he does not, I have instructed the Rules Committee to be prepared to move forward with Congressman Jamie Raskin’s 25th Amendment legislation and a motion for impeachment."

Pelosi did not set a specific deadline for Trump to resign.

Instead, she said, "the House will preserve every option," including the Cabinet removing Trump under the 25th Amendment as well as "a motion to impeach him or a privileged resolution for impeachment."

Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) said Democrats likely will file a one-count article of impeachment on Monday during a pro forma session of the House, setting up the possibility of a vote to impeach without a lengthy hearing, as soon as sometime next week.

"We just can’t simply say. ‘You know what, let’s just wait 12 days and he’ll be gone.’ We have a responsibility to hold him accountable," Cicilline said on CNN Friday. "The only way we can hold him accountable and remove this dangerous man from office is to in fact impeach."

The article of impeachment charges that Trump betrayed his trust as president "by willfully inciting violence against the Government of the United States" and would remove him from office and bar him from holding a federal position in the future.

Democrats, and some Republicans, remain outraged by Trump’s decision to insist falsely that he had won the election by a landslide and to incite members of a massive rally on Wednesday to violently disrupt the ceremonial certification of the Electoral College.

Yet Democrats and proponents of impeaching Trump face many hurdles with so few days before the Jan. 20 inauguration of Joe Biden as president. They face a clock winding down, a Republican-controlled Senate and pushback by the White House and Republicans.

"As President Trump said yesterday, this is a time for healing and unity as one nation. A politically motivated impeachment against a president, who has done a great job, with 12 days remaining in his term will only serve to further divide our great country," said White House spokesman Judd Deere in a statement.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) could refuse to reconvene the Senate for an impeachment trial, leaving a decision by the new Senate majority leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), on whether to try Trump once he’s out of office.

Pelosi and Schumer have urged Trump to resign and pressed Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office. But they have not heard back from Pence and he has made no public statement.

"If the President does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action," Pelosi said in a letter to her caucus Friday morning.

Biden said Friday he is eager to oust Trump from the White House, but would leave it up to Congress to decide whether to impeach Trump for a second time.

"We were duly elected, so I think it is important we get on with the business of getting him out of office," Biden said. "The quickest way that will happen is us being sworn in on the 20th."

Asked what advice he would give Congress, he said, "I did tell them that's a decision for the Congress to make. I'm focused on my job." He added he planned to talk to Pelosi and Democratic leadership Friday afternoon about his agenda and whatever they wanted to discuss.

Many Republicans balked at an impeachment of Trump.

Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) said he did not believe it was necessary to remove Trump from office days before Biden’s inauguration.

"The White House has already said their staff is working toward a peaceful transition," he said. "Instead of focusing on impeachment hearings and doing the work of impeachment we should be debating a bill to get money to local governments."

But Democrats said Trump must be ousted before he does more damage and to make it clear his behavior is not acceptable.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Friday Congress should move to impeach Trump if he doesn’t resign, regardless of how little time Trump has left in office. "That's not the point," he said. "The point is the statement, that we do not tolerate this as a government. That's why impeachment."

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-St. Albans), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sent a letter signed by his committee’s Democrats to Pelosi before the caucus meeting calling for Trump’s impeachment. "We must demonstrate to the world that no one in America is above the law and counter our adversaries’ propaganda that democracy is a failed system," the letter said.

Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) said, "The president must be held accountable."

A draft of the articles of impeachment charges that Trump betrayed his trust as president and committed high crimes and misdemeanors "by willfully inciting violence" against Congress, and notes Trump also tried to subvert Georgia’s presidential vote and lied about winning the election by a landslide.

"Incited by President Trump, a mob unlawfully breached the Capitol, injured law enforcement personnel, menaced Members of Congress and the Vice President, interfered with the Joint Session’s solemn constitutional duty to certify the election results, and engaged in violent, deadly, destructive, and seditious acts," it said.

The count also charged that Trump’s conduct "has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy and the Constitution" and seeks to disqualify him from holding any office under the United States government in the future.