Nancy Pelosi insisted Sunday that it’s imperative Donald Trump be impeached so he cannot run for the White House ever again as she, and other Democrats, fear the president could pardon those involved in the storming of the Capitol in his final days.
While some Democrats are pushing for the impeachment route, the House Speaker told ’60 Minutes’ in an interview that will air Sunday night that she prefers invoking the 25th Amendment because it gets Trump out of office immediately.
‘There is a possibility that after all of this, there’s no punishment, no consequence, and he could run again for president,’ CBS’ Lesley Stahl posed to Pelosi in a clip released ahead of airing the full interview.
‘And that’s one of the motivations that people have for advocating for impeachment,’ Pelosi explained.
She is, however, concerned that if Trump is not booted from the White House right now, he will use his last 10 days in office to pardon those part of the mob who descended on the Capitol Wednesday – or even himself and other allies.
Impeachment could take some time – even as Democrats prepare to vote as early as Wednesday on articles.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told 60 Minutes on Sunday that she wants impeachment for Donald Trump so he can’t run for office in the future
Pelosi said she would prefer if Vice President Mike Pence invoked the 25th Amendment ‘because it gets rid of him – he’s out of office’ now as concerns mount that Trump could pardon the mob in his last 10 days in office
Lawmakers and law enforcement are pursuing all available avenues to find and prosecute those involved in the Capitol riot – using picture and video evidence to do so
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said Sunday that House Democrats might not even send the articles to the Senate until after Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office.
‘I like the 25th Amendment because it gets rid of him – he’s out of office,’ Pelosi said. ‘But there is strong support in the Congress for impeaching the president a second time.’
‘What if he pardons himself?’ Stahl asked.
‘What if pardons these people who are terrorists on the Capitol?’ Pelosi shot back.
Congress is moving to prosecute or punish any and all they can find who were involved in the riots at the Capitol – and have already found some who were pictured prominently.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday in an interview with ABC’s ‘This Week’ that half of the members of the House were at risk of dying during the riots.
‘If another head of state came in and ordered an attack on the United States Congress, would we say that that should not be prosecuted? Would we say that there should be absolutely no response to that?’ the New York congresswoman told ABC host George Stephanopoulos.
‘No,’ Ocasio-Cortez asserted. ‘It is an act of insurrection. It’s an act of hostility. And we must have accountability, because, without it, it will happen again.’
‘Perhaps my colleagues were not fully present for the events on Wednesday, but we came close to half of the House nearly dying on Wednesday,’ she said.
Hakeem Jeffries, a fellow New York Representative, agreed with AOC’s points in an interview with NBC on Sunday, claiming: ‘Donald Trump represents a clear and present danger to the health and safety of the American people, as well as our democracy’
‘Perhaps my colleagues were not fully present for the events on Wednesday, but we came close to half of the House nearly dying on Wednesday,’ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday of the pro-Trump mob descending on the Capitol
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said Sunday that Democrats will vote on impeachment this week, but said the party might wait until after Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office to move the articles to the Senate
The representative, as well as the handful of members of her progressive ‘squad’, are fully on board with plans to again impeach President Trump.
Clyburn said Sunday that articles have already been drawn and he is expecting a vote in the lower chamber in the coming day.
‘I think that will come – probably Tuesday, and maybe Wednesday, but it will happen this week,’ the No. 3 House Democrat told ‘Fox News Sunday’ when asked about the House taking action to impeach Trump. ‘The rest of the articles have been drawn up.’
‘If we are the people’s House, let’s do the people’s work and vote to impeach this president,’ Clyburn continued in his interview with Fox’s Chris Wallace. ‘And then we’ll decide later — or the Senate will decide later — what to do with that impeachment.’
Ocasio-Cortez said ‘every minute’ Trump is still in office, there is a looming threat.
‘I absolutely believe that impeachment should be scheduled for several reasons,’ she said on Sunday.
‘Our main priority is to ensure the removal of Donald Trump as president of the United States,’ AOC added. ‘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.’
While Democrats pursue impeachment, many lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are calling for Trump to step down on his own volition to prevent Congress from having to intervene. Others are looking to Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and take over office for the last 10 days of Trump’s term.
Lawmakers were forced to evacuate the House and Senate chambers and shelter in offices or other locations on Wednesday after thousands of Donald Trump’s supporters breached the Capitol and rioted through the halls
There are also talks of banning Trump from running for president again in the future – as speculation mounts he will pursue another run for the White House in 2024.
‘In addition to removal, we’re also talking about complete barring of the president – or, rather, of Donald Trump from running for office ever again,’ AOC told ABC. ‘And, in addition to that, the potential ability to prevent pardoning himself from those charges that he was impeached for.’
Jeffries also wants immediate action against Trump, expressing concern that the president still has ‘access to the nuclear coded.’
‘The goal at the present moment is to address the existential threat that Donald Trump presents at this time. Every second, every minute, every hour that Donald Trump remains in office presents a danger to the American people,’ the Democrat representative said on Sunday during an interview on ‘Meet the Press’.
‘You know, Donald Trump may be in the Twitter penalty box, but he still has access to the nuclear codes,’ Jeffries said, referencing Trump’s indefinite ban from Twitter. ‘That’s a frightening prospect.’
He added: ‘Donald Trump is completely and totally out of control, and even his longtime enablers have now come to that conclusion.’
Clyburn, however, said Sunday that House Democrats are weighing if they should hold off on sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate until after Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office.
This way, Democrats would allow the new president to install key members of his team and would have a new 50-50 split Senate to work with.