'This unhinged person': Democrats speed toward Trump’s impeachment

The House is barreling toward the impeachment of President Donald Trump for fomenting violent riots at the U.S. Capitol this week, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi works to restrain the president in his final, chaotic days in office.

Pelosi has yet to make a final decision on how precisely Democrats will proceed, including whether to pursue a constitutional process that could remove Trump without impeachment. In a statement Friday evening, Pelosi again pressured Trump to resign his office but said Democrats would "preserve every option" if he did 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 said.

Top Democrats say privately there is broad consensus for impeachment next week in a caucus that remains deeply shaken, and House Democrats plan to introduce a formal resolution during Monday’s pro forma session, though President-elect Joe Biden is less than enthusiastic about that specific option. Pelosi herself made clear, even as some colleagues resisted, that the House must act and that impeachment is becoming the most probable course after getting feedback from the full caucus.

“It’s hard to exaggerate the culpability of this unhinged person,” Pelosi told Democrats on a private caucus call on Friday. “We cannot empower him.”

The 3.5-hourlong caucus call was emotional, reflecting the raw fury among Democrats over Trump’s incitement of the Capitol riots that resulted in five deaths. House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is expected to reconvene Democrats to continue the discussion either Friday night or over the weekend.

"The violent insurrection was an attack on the caucus, the Congress, the country and the Constitution that was incited and facilitated by Donald Trump," Jeffries said on the call. "He must be held accountable for his actions.”

Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) gave voice to the smaller clutch of House Democrats worried that impeachment would backfire, calling the race to deploy it an “old-fashioned lynching” that would tear the country apart just as Trump’s power is cratering.

“I don’t want to breath life into the corpse of this president, I don’t want him to become a martyr,” Schrader said.

But Pelosi and her top lieutenants, joined by a large cross section of her caucus, said inaction was not an option. And the belief that the Senate would simply reject any impeachment is not the House’s concern.

“This is about impeachment … that’s something that we have within our power,” Pelosi said.

Before the call, Pelosi also revealed that she spoke to Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to ask him to prevent Trump from initiating military hostilities or continuing to have access to the nation’s nuclear codes.

Democratic leaders are expected to decide quickly on their next steps, according to several lawmakers and aides. There is widespread agreement within the caucus that Trump is a threat to democracy and should be immediately removed from office, and perhaps barred from running again.

Most committees have not even been formed in the new Congress, making it more difficult for the House to take quick action. But the caucus made a point of approving members for the House Rules Committee — the first step of the process for any legislation — on the Friday caucus call in case the House needs to act quickly in the coming days.

But impeachment has historically been lengthy and complex, requiring weeks of groundwork and due process that the House does not have time for. Some lawmakers cited those hurdles and worried that impeachment would inflame an already tense situation in the Capitol just as President-elect Joe Biden is set to be inaugurated.

Biden, speaking to reporters Friday before his call with Pelosi, said impeachment was a "judgment for the Congress to make." But Biden also seemed to indicate impeachment may not be the best way to accomplish Democrats’ goal.

“It’s important to get him out of office. The quickest way for that to happen is us being sworn in on Jan. 20," Biden said.

Even if the House does impeach Trump, it’s far from clear the GOP-controlled Senate would act before his presidency runs out in 12 days. Senate Republicans have largely rejected the push so far, and the Senate is not scheduled to return to Washington until the eve of the inauguration.

The Senate would need all 100 senators to agree to start an impeachment trial because the Senate is on recess currently scheduled to conduct no business before Jan. 19. That makes a Senate trial before Trump leaves office implausible given the divisions among Republicans about whether or how Trump should be removed from office.

Democrats are moving rapidly in the waning days of Trump’s presidency — fueled by anger over Trump’s role in the deadly assault on the Capitol that left one U.S. Capitol Police officer and four others dead, and forced hundreds of lawmakers to flee from violence while insurrectionists occupied their offices and both chambers of Congress.

Pelosi herself — who watched rioters invade her office, use her computer and take selfies in her chair — is irate, calling Trump’s conduct an act of “treason” in a call with her leadership team on Thursday night. She and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump and said if he did not act, they would move to impeach.

Two sets of articles of impeachment have already been drafted, and Democratic leaders have coalesced behind those led by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee. That proposal says Trump deserves removal — and would permanently bar him from public office — for “willfully inciting violence against the government of the United States.”

The resolution also accuses Trump of improperly pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory on false pretenses.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who supports impeachment if Trump isn’t removed by other means, warned colleagues on the call that pursuing it could raise thorny procedural questions about how much due process to afford and whether the expedited schedule could set a dangerous precedent.

Other Democrats raised a concern that has begun bubbling up within the caucus: Whether elements within the Capitol Police either turned a blind eye or even aided the rioters inside the Capitol complex. Videos showing police pulling down outer barricades and taking a selfie with some of those in the building raised alarms among some Democrats, and a claim by House leaders that they were misled by the Capitol Police chief about the security arrangements for the Jan. 6 session, have only fueled suspicions.

One focus for Cicilline and other top Democrats in the coming days will be recruiting House Republicans to buck their party and their president on the floor. Democrats believe the GOP will have at least one defection: Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who became the first House Republican to call for Trump to be removed from office through the 25th Amendment. A spokeswoman said Friday that if Congress decides to impeach Trump, Kinzinger would likely support it.

Democrats also have their eyes on House GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who they have heard is still working through how to proceed but hasn’t ruled anything out.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Friday said he had reached out to Biden and plans to speak to him about how working together to lower the political temperature. But he also came out against trying to oust Trump, saying, "impeaching the President with just 12 days left in his term will only divide our country more."

And most House Republicans — even those who say they are appalled by Trump’s behavior — seem reluctant to go down the impeachment path for the same reasons. Some, including freshman Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa, who represents a frontline district, have already preemptively put out statements saying they would oppose impeachment.

Moderate Democrats — which are a critical faction in Pelosi’s caucus, particularly with the much tighter margins this Congress — privately say they still prefer an approach centered on the 25th Amendment. But it’s unlikely they would block a path to impeachment, if that is what Pelosi chooses, according to several sources familiar with their thinking.

One issue for Pelosi: her majority is much smaller than when the House impeached Trump over his pressure campaign against Ukraine in December 2019, after treading cautiously for months. Back then, an intense effort to unify the caucus led to only two defections.

Some Democrats are also wary of impeaching Trump — just days after spasms of violence rocked the Capitol — amid an uncertain security environment, particularly as authorities are preparing to secure Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

House Democrats have extremely limited time to launch the proceedings against the president, if they intend to remove him before his term expires. Democrats have discussed ways to further fast track the process, including bringing impeachment articles directly to the floor.

Though it typically runs through the House Judiciary Committee, the panel has not yet been formally organized and its chairman, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), along with other key members, say the impeachment articles will need to go straight to the House floor.

If Democrats pass articles early next week — and Pelosi immediately sent them to the Senate — the Senate would be required to begin a trial immediately under congressional rules. Trump’s first impeachment trial, on charges he abused his power and obstructed a congressional investigation, ultimately lasted four weeks before the Senate delivered its verdict.

That timetable suggests the goal of any impeachment is unlikely to be Trump’s removal and is much more focused on the option to prevent him from holding federal office in the future. Some Democrats believe that possibility could woo Senate Republicans, some of whom are eyeing a 2024 bid themselves.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said Friday that he would consider Trump’s removal depending on how it plays out in the House.

"The House, if they come together and have a process, I will definitely consider whatever articles they might move,” Sasse said in an interview with “CBS This Morning” on Friday. "What he did was wicked.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Friday also called on Trump to resign though she didn’t address the question of impeachment.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), another potential White House aspirant who opposed Trump’s effort to challenge Biden’s electoral votes, declined to comment to reporters in the Capitol Friday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office also declined to comment.

But other key Senate Republicans signaled they had no interest in trying to oust the president.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said a last-minute attempt to impeach Trump would backfire.

"Any attempt to impeach President Trump would not only be unsuccessful in the Senate but would be a dangerous precedent for the future of the presidency," Graham, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said.

Sen. Roy Blunt, a member of GOP leadership, told a local TV reporter that it was "a ridiculous discussion" to have. "We don’t have the time for it to happen, even if there was a reason," he said.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said in an interview that he would support any legal remedy to removing Trump, but cast doubts on both removal through the impeachment process and the 25th Amendment.

“For the safety of our nation and the sake of our nation and also our international standing, it’d be best if President Trump left immediately. So whatever ways,” Manchin said. “If you say impeachment, we’ve already voted to impeach once. Are there 20 other Republican senators that will vote to impeach now?”

Manchin, once one of the few Senate Democrats who tried to work with Trump, said it would be far more realistic to have Cabinet members speak out against the president and for Twitter to unplug his account.

Top Democrats are still discussing the 25th Amendment path, though it became far less likely after Pence rejected calls to remove Trump from power with the support of him and the Cabinet. Democrats could still choose to pursue a bill from Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, which would create an outside commission to recommend Trump’s removal, possibly including former presidents. Other Democrats, though, have said that approach would fail because Pence would still need to agree to the panel’s findings in order to remove Trump.

Scores of congressional Democrats — as well as numerous former federal officials, some governors and at least two Republican House members — have all called for Trump’s immediate removal from office, either by impeachment or the Cabinet’s invocation of the 25th Amendment.

Dozens of those House Democrats sent a letter to Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Clyburn on Wednesday urging them not to take the House’s scheduled recess next week.

“We are the only branch of government that is capable of governing this country and led by sane and competent people,” the letter, which was led by Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), reads.

“Going home and staying home until the eve of President Biden’s inauguration should not be an option.”

Natasha Korecki, Burgess Everett, Tyler Pager and Quint Forgey contributed to this report.

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