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Banished by Twitter, an isolated Trump faces looming impeachment threat

Published 01/09/2021, 03:08 AM
Updated 01/09/2021, 07:46 PM
© Reuters. A photo illustration shows the suspended Twitter account of U.S. President Donald Trump on a smartphone in a media board cast tent at the White House in Washington

By Richard Cowan and Joseph Ax

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With only days left in his presidency, Donald Trump - silenced by Twitter and shunned by a growing number of Republican officials - faces a renewed drive by Democrats to remove him from office after he incited his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol.

    Democratic members of the House of Representatives will introduce formal articles of impeachment on Monday, Representative Ted Lieu said on Twitter. The California Democrat, who helped draft the charges, said the articles had drawn 180 co-sponsors as of Saturday afternoon. A spokeswoman for Lieu said no Republicans have yet signed on.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top congressional Democrat, has threatened to impeach Trump for a historic second time unless he resigned "immediately," a move the pugnacious president is unlikely to consider.

Pelosi has also asked members to draft legislation aimed at invoking the U.S. Constitution's 25th Amendment, which allows the removal of a president unable to fulfill the duties of the office.

Trump "has done something so serious -- that there should be prosecution against him," Pelosi told CBS' "60 Minutes" according to an early excerpt of the interview.

The intensifying effort to oust Trump from the White House has drawn scattered support from Republicans, whose party has been splintered by the president's actions. Democrats have pressed Vice President Mike Pence to consider the 25th Amendment, but a Pence adviser has said he opposes the idea.

The odds that Trump will actually be removed before Jan. 20, when President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in, remain long. Any impeachment in the House would trigger a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate, which is scheduled to be in recess until Jan. 19 and has already acquitted Trump once before.

Trump has said he will not be at Biden's inauguration, but Pence will attend, a senior administration official said on Saturday.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent a memo to his fellow Republican senators suggesting a trial would not begin until Trump was out of office, a source familiar with the document said. A conviction in the Senate requires a two-thirds vote.

Democrats will take control of the Senate later this month, after Georgia certifies two runoff elections won by Democratic challengers.

Twitter permanently cut off Trump's personal account and access to his nearly 90 million followers late on Friday, citing the risk of further incitement of violence, three days after Trump exhorted thousands of supporters to march on the Capitol as Congress met to certify Biden's Nov. 3 election victory.

The resulting assault, viewed with shock around the world, left a police officer and four others dead in its wake, as rioters breached the Capitol and forced lawmakers into hiding for their own safety.

In his first public comments, Pope Francis said he was "astonished" and that anyone engaged in attacks on democracy must be condemned.

A Florida man who was photographed smiling and waving as he carried Pelosi's lectern from the House chambers amid the chaos was arrested by federal law enforcement late Friday.

Authorities also arrested a man seen in widely shared photographs wearing a horned fur hat and carrying a spear inside the Capitol. Dozens of others face federal and state charges.

'I WANT HIM OUT'

Twitter's decision stifled one of Trump's most potent tools. His frequent posts helped propel his 2016 presidential campaign, since which he has used the site to fire up his base and attack his political opponents from both parties.

    Trump later used the official @POTUS government account to lash out at Twitter, saying the 75 million "great patriots" who voted for him would not be silenced, and that he was considering building his own social media platform.

    Twitter quickly deleted those posts and soon after suspended the Trump campaign account as well.

    A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Thursday and Friday found 57%of Americans want Trump to be removed immediately from office following the violence.

    A small but growing number of Republicans have joined calls for Trump to step down, and several high-ranking administration officials resigned in protest.

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said Friday that Trump should resign immediately and suggested she would consider leaving the party altogether if Republicans cannot separate themselves from him.

    "I want him out. He has caused enough damage," she told the Anchorage Daily News.

Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania told Fox News on Saturday that Trump had "committed impeachable offenses" but declined to commit to voting in favor of Trump's removal.

Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, a frequent Trump critic, told CBS News he would "definitely consider" impeachment because the president "disregarded his oath of office."

Trump allies, including Senator Lindsey Graham (NYSE:GHM) and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, however, urged Democrats to shelve any impeachment effort in the name of unity.

"Impeaching President Donald Trump with 12 days remaining in his presidency would only serve to further divide the country," said White House spokesman Judd Deere (NYSE:DE).

Democratic lawmakers have also called for some of their Republican colleagues to resign or be expelled over their roles supporting Trump's unfounded claims of a rigged election.

Sherrod Brown, Democratic senator from Ohio, wrote on Twitter on Saturday that Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, who called for Electoral College votes of states that voted for Biden to be rejected, had "betrayed their oaths of office and abetted a violent insurrection on our democracy."

"If they do not resign, the Senate must expel them," said Brown, the first senator to call for the pair to be expelled.

Representative Don Beyer, a Democrat from Virginia, also called on McCarthy to resign for backing efforts to block Biden's election.

A copy of draft articles of impeachment circulating among members of Congress charged Trump with "inciting violence against the government of the United States" in a bid to overturn his loss to Biden.

    The House impeached Trump in December 2019 for pressuring the Ukrainian president to investigate Biden, but the Senate acquitted him in February 2020. Only two other presidents have been impeached, and none has been impeached twice.

© Reuters. A photo illustration shows the suspended Twitter account of U.S. President Donald Trump on a smartphone in a media board cast tent at the White House in Washington

Trump spent months falsely claiming the election was stolen from him due to widespread fraud. Dozens of courts across the country have thrown out lawsuits challenging the results, and election officials from both parties have said there is no evidence to support his allegations.

Latest comments

Donnies actions cannot go unpunished..
Hang him lol
says chicomms Reuters
This sounds like mutiny from the Democrats and the media.
I am ready for civil war
This is not just a “USA thing”, it involves world powers behind certain events.
Here has no freedom speach!
What a circus! 2nd act starting Monday in social media of your choice...
China asked to forgive the hong kong rioters. Should U.S do the same?
Lindsey Graham called out to schumer and said call me ASAP you do not wanna go here. Graham knows something .
The leftist are acting very similiar to the Nazis of the late 30's. Their obsession with erasing history, eugenics, highly centralized government, suppression and attack of opposing political views, and scapegoating a certain segment of the population is spot on *** Be afraid.
Arch Gab - your comments describe exactly the antics of the great orange ring-piece.
spot on. scary stuff...
Trump supporters should ask for China's help.
Won't happen, Bidens Impeachment will start shortly though
get rid of him, he's a baby inside that adult body, also he's dangerous, would you leave an employee about to get fired inside the job side? he will try to do as much damage as he can. he know he's in trouble that's why he throw his beloved followers under the bus to protect himself. he doesn't care about them, he only cares about him.
Everyone of my aquaintances and relatives says 'Good riddance' of Tr.. He's been a burden to the world. USA's safeguards were not adequate to prevent this serious error in judgement.
Uh oh, melania better get the pacifier ready big orange baby about to cry cause no one likes him.
Better late than never.
I used to support trump. now I want him gone.
Lack of intellectual depth. All he had to do (before the 2016 election) was to put the evidence in front of his mind and ask: How would a panel of wise men and women decide? -- But Hillary was just as unpalatable. Tr.. was more myserious and flamboyant
crazy how anyone could support Mr orange
for u 'freedom of speech' crowd, u do realize Twitter is a private company and can do whatever they want as long as does not discriminate against protected classes (i.e. ethnicity, gender, etc). You guys didn't seem to have a problem with the bigot cake guy that didn't want make wedding cakes for gay couples.
Wow, so these companies are exactly the same as china?
Trump has Fox News.
Fox News is a Facist propaganda machine...very low rating, only poor educated people watches their false comments.
What the heck is the point in removing him, Trump leaves office in like 9 days. Give it a rest
depends that’s only if Congress charged him. There are two ways of impeachment.
Typo charge
Okay, wait a minute... I had been attempting to point-out Mr. Corradini's mispelling within his Post... But, it seems the same 'Comments' module, here on investing.com, has foiled me, as well. So, Mr. Corradini, please ignore my attempt at correction; and, I'll do 20 push-ups for having the arrogance to attempt citing of misspelled word
Impeach Trump and you are asking for a very rough next 4 years
Why were known antifa memebers inside the capitol building? Why did capitol police open the doors for them? The *******party burned down the riechstag and blamed their politxal opponents...
There weren't any known antifa members inside the Capitol building. That was debunked by the very facial recognition company that supposedly identified them. Just more disinformation from the Right. But you ask a good question about why some police let the rioters in.
They dont dont ban any antifa during the summer of looting n burning. Talking about inciting vi.olence, removing him now is the best way to do it.
In order to ban somebody you first have to identify them. Do actually know any member of antifa? And more specifically, somebody who has a prominent following on Twitter? Probably not.
Remove him now is asking for violence from a few extremi.sts . A few more days and he will b gone anyway. Just let it go.
They did that with ****
The DC royals are now hysterical and thoroughly angst ridden seeing right wing barbarians within the gates...much less of a problem when left wing barbarians spent months on end burning and looting American cities.
Wow....very good analysis! Also over a year of waste investigating a fake Russia scam and yet....and yet could not spend just 10 days to resolve an issue that millions have strong issues with. I find many of the comments here detached from reality.
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