Trump set to become first president in history to be impeached TWICE as Democrats reveal single article of 'incitement of insurrection' that will be voted on as early as Monday if he refuses to resign

• House Caucus meets Friday to discuss impeachment
• Several top Democrats said a vote next week was likely
• GOP Sen. Ben Sasse said he would consider backing impeachment
• To succeed two-thirds of senators would have to vote to impeach
• Comes as 25th Amendment action appears to be falling apart 
• Pompeo, the Secretary of State, and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin have reportedly discussed removing Trump
• Both men have held informal discussions with their staff about the 25th Amendment, CNBC reported

By GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM-8 January 2021 

House Democrats are planning to impeach President Donald Trump with a single impeachment article charging him with 'incitement of insurrection' they revealed Friday afternoon. 

The move is on a hyper-fast track after Wednesday's Capitol riot – with the article set to be introduced Monday.  

 A draft of the article prepared by Reps. David Cicilline, Ted Lieu, and Jamie Raskin states that, 'Incited by Trump, a mob unlawfully breached the Capitol,' injured law enforcement, menaced lawmakers and the vice president, and interfered with the count of the Electoral College.  

It cites Trump's false claims that 'We won this election' and 'We won it by a landslide, and cites his effort to 'subvert and obstruct the certification of the results.'

With the Capitol still cleaning up broken windows, smashed historic doors, and mourning a deceased Capitol Police officer, the article states that he 'gravely endangered the security of the United States.'

Trump 'betrayed his trust as president,' it reads, calling his conduct 'grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law.' It calls for him not just to be removed but to be banned from public office - which would prevent a 2024 presidential run, and potentially make the idea more attractive to Republicans than simple conviction.

But the White House said that a 'politically motivated impeachment against a president with 12 days remaining in his term will only serve to further divide our great country.'

What was unknown Friday afternoon was the extent of Senate Republican support.

The last impeachment featured public committee hearings and a long investigatory process, but Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerold Nadler said he supports bringing articles 'directly to the House floor.'

Voting them forward would make him the first president to be impeached twice. No president has even been convicted. 

The articles were published just after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanded that Trump resign his office 'immediately' or face impeachment.

And it came on a day that: 

• Trump said he would snub Joe Biden's inauguration, in yet another rejection of tradition and norms; 
• Biden responded saying it was 'one of the few things we've ever agreed on' but said impeachment and removal were up to Congress, not him; 
• Pelosi revealed she has asked General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, how he is stopping a 'deranged president' from using the nuclear codes or launching military action - but did not say how he responded; 
• The prospect of the 25th Amendment being deployed appeared to fade. Pence was reported to be 'reluctant' to use it, if only because of the legal chaos which would ensue over whether the cabinet has enough members to vote to invoke it - partly because Elaine Chao, the transportation secretary and Betsy DeVos, the education secretary have resigned in disgust and partly because Trump had filled the cabinet with acting secretaries whose legal authority to invoke it is unclear;
• Republican senator Ben Sasse said he was willing to impeach and remove Trump, making him the first of the GOP caucus who had voted against convicting the president last year to change position - but so far no others have followed; 
• After his cabinet was rocked by resignations, one of his closest aides Hope Hicks announced she would resign next week - although she claimed it was her plan all along - and White House counsel Pat Cipollone was reported to be on the brink too; 
• Washington D.C.'s district attorney Karl Racine hinted that he is investigating Trump, Don Jr, and Rudy Giuliani over inciting the riot at the wild rally held just outside the White House where the president demanded 'strength' and said he would lead a march on the Capitol and Giuliani demanded 'trial by combat';
• The FBI launched a murder hunt to find the MAGA rioters who killed Officer Brian Sicknick during the storming of the Capitol, apparently hitting him over the head with a fire extinguisher;
• Cops across the country began rounding up suspected rioters after putting out wanted pictures, with those arrested including the self-proclaimed white supremacist who was pictured with his feet up on Pelosi's desk.

 

 

A draft impeachment article charges Donald Trump with 'incitement of insurrection'

 

She issued the demand as her separate push to have Vice President Mike Pence seek to invoke the 25th Amendment to strip away power from Trump appears to be collapsing. 

Pelosi made the demand in a letter to colleagues released just minutes before House Democrats joined on a conference call discuss whether to go ahead with a second impeachment of Trump, after the death toll in the Capitol riot rose to give, including a Capitol Police officer. 

'If the President does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action,' she said, referencing the impeachment power without naming it.

She issued the call after members of her leadership team said an impeachment effort would move forward within days.

'As you know, there is growing momentum around the invocation of the 25th Amendment, which would allow the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet to remove the President for his incitement of insurrection and the danger he still poses,' she told lawmakers.

'Yesterday, Leader [Charles] Schumer and I placed a call with Vice President Pence, and we still hope to hear from him as soon as possible with a positive answer as to whether he and the Cabinet will honor their oath to the Constitution and the American people,' she said. 

Schumer said Thursday the joint call resulted in them waiting for 25 minutes and Pence being unwilling to come to the phone.

Pelosi pointed to the key role senior Republicans played in getting Richard Nixon to resign. 

'Nearly fifty years ago, after years of enabling their rogue President, Republicans in Congress finally told President Nixon that it was time to go. 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.

House Democrats held a conference call Friday to discuss a plan to rush through articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump in the final 13 days of his presidency – with leaders saying the votes are likely there for it.

Pelosi blasted Trump on the call.  'The President chose to be an insurrectionist,' a source told The Hill. 'Impeachment encourages conversation on the 25th Amendment. That's picked up a lot of steam,' she said.  

Leaders of both chambers, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Leader Charles Schumer – said they would support impeachment if Vice President Mike Pence fails to act with the Trump cabinet under the 25th amendment to strip him of authority following the Capitol riot on Wednesday.

Pence appears not to be interested in that route – rebuffing a call from the two leaders Thursday morning. Yesterday, two Trump cabinet members who would vote in a 25th Amendment scenario, Transportation Sec. Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, announced their resignations – taking them out of the mix of cabinet members who could vote to strip away power. 

Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has said if Mike Pence and the cabinet do not invoke the 25th Amendment the House will likely go forward with impeachment. She says Trump cited 'sedition' against the U.S. 'If the President does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action,' she said

Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), the assistant speaker, said the House 'will move forward with impeachment' if Mike Pence fails to act under the 25th Amendment

Assistant House Speaker Rep. Katherine Clarke (D-Mass.) said a floor vote could come next week.

'Donald Trump needs to be removed from office. And we are going to proceed with every tool that we have to make sure that that happens to protect our democracy,' she said. 

'If the reports are correct, and Mike Pence is not going to uphold his oath of office and remove the president and help protect our democracy, then we will move forward with impeachment to do just that,' she told CNN.

Top Democrats say they must act to prevent Trump from doing anything dangerous in his final days in office – but the move is fraught with political implications during an unstable period. 

President Trump tweeted Friday morning that he would not be attending Joe Biden's inauguration, hours after finally releasing a video where he called for a 'seamless' transition despite curing up a volatile post-election period.

Even getting impeachment articles through the House in an expedited fashion should be a manageable lift for Democratic leaders.

The role of the Senate, where a trial would be held, is less certain. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell broke with Trump over his demands that Congress throw out electors in states he lost, and his wife, Chao, quit the cabinet on Thursday.

But during Trump's impeachment trial in January just one GOP senator, Utah's Mitt Romney, voted for an impeachment article to remove Trump from office. 

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said he would 'consider' impeachment articles against Trump. 

'The House, if they come together and have a process, I will definitely consider whatever articles they might move,' he told CBS, after public comments denouncing aspects of Trump's conduct and voting to count certified electors for Biden.  

He said an 'insurrectionist mob' tried to 'disrupt the people's house' after Trump 'told them to go to the Capitol and go wild.' He said Trump was 'flagrantly disregarding his oath of office' – but said it was open what was the 'best thing' for the country. He said what Trump did was 'wicked' – but still stopped short of saying going ahead with impeachment was the right call.

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said party members believe Trump needs to be 'held accountable.' 

'I think we're probably getting ready to go down that path next week,' she said of impeachment.  But she told CNN there is a risk of causing further division.

'How do you hold somebody accountable for the damage that they have done to our democracy? That is a real question. And how do you manage this without causing further division to this country?' she asked. 

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