Donald Trump looks set to become the first American president to be impeached for a second time as Democrats accused him of fomenting a “coup” at the US Capitol building that left five people dead.
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The historic effort gained momentum on Friday after it emerged that a police officer was among those killed when a pro-Trump mob stormed the seat of American democracy in Washington, after the president encouraged supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn the result of November’s election.
In a letter to members of the House, Nancy Pelosi, the speaker, called Trump’s actions a “horrific assault on our democracy” and called on the president to resign or face impeachment proceedings again.
“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. “If the president does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action.”
The president belatedly denounced the insurrection in a video on Thursday, but followed up with a tweet on Friday that praised his supporters as “patriots” before announcing that he will not attend his successor Joe Biden’s inauguration on 20 January.
Democrats in the House, where they hold a majority, said they intend to speed ahead with Trump’s impeachment next week. The Senate would then hold a trial and vote on his removal from office, with a two-thirds majority required for conviction.
The Republican senator Ben Sasse said on Friday he would “definitely consider” any articles of impeachment from the House, telling CBS News Trump had “disregarded his oath of office” and that his incitement of violence was “wicked”.
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told the Anchorage Daily News: “I want him to resign. I want him out. He has caused enough damage.”
The first Republican senator to call for Trump to go, Murkowski also said: “If the Republican party has become nothing more than the party of Trump, I sincerely question whether this is the party for me.”
Late on Friday afternoon, a White House statement said: “This is a time for healing and unity as one nation. A politically motivated impeachment against a president with 12 days remaining in his term will only serve to further divide our great country.”
In a speech on Wednesday, Trump exhorted a crowd of thousands to descend on the Capitol to protest his election defeat. Rioters overwhelmed police and stormed the building, rampaging through its ornate halls, looting offices and posing for photos in the Senate chamber.
Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, 40, died from injuries sustained in the invasion, the force said. A woman was fatally shot by the authorities and three people died from medical emergencies. Pipe bombs were found at the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties. Police made 68 arrests.
In the immediate aftermath of the breach, which interrupted a session of Congress held to ratify Biden’s election win, Trump declined to issue condemnation, instead telling supporters he loved them and repeating his baseless assertion that he was being cheated of victory.
Pelosi and the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, called for immediate impeachment proceedings if Mike Pence, the vice-president, and the cabinet refuse to invoke the 25th amendment to the US constitution, which allows them to strip the president of his powers if he cannot discharge the duties of his office.
“The president’s dangerous and seditious acts necessitate his immediate removal from office,” they said in a statement on Thursday evening, accusing Trump of inciting an “insurrection”.
In her message to Democratic colleagues on Friday, Pelosi wrote that Republicans should emulate their predecessors who nearly 50 years ago persuaded President Richard Nixon to resign after the Watergate scandal.
Pelosi also revealed that she had spoken to Gen Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, “to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike”.
She added: “The situation of this unhinged president could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy.”
Katherine Clark, the assistant House speaker, told CNN Democrats were prepared to move forward with impeachment as early as next week.
And James Clyburn, the No3 House Democrat, told the same network: “Everyone knows that this president is deranged. can confirm that we have had discussions about it and I would hope that the speaker would move forward if the vice-president refuses to do what he is required to do under the constitution.”
The House impeached Trump in December 2019 for pressuring the Ukrainian president to investigate Biden, but the Senate acquitted him in February last year. Only two other presidents have been impeached. None has been impeached twice.
There are signs the incident has shaken Trump’s grip on the Republican party as never before, with Congressman Adam Kinzinger among those calling for his removal. Several senior administration officials have resigned including two cabinet members: Elaine Chao, the transportation secretary, and Betsy DeVos, the education secretary.
In a statement, Chao, who is married to the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, said the violent attack on the Capitol “deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside”.
DeVos cast blame on the president for inciting the mob. “There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me,” she wrote.
Even Rupert Murdoch’s conservative Wall Street Journal has finally turned on Trump and called for his resignation, to avoid a second impeachment. “It would give Mr Trump agency, a la Richard Nixon, over his own fate,” it wrote in an editorial.
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But conviction in the Senate remains unlikely, with some warning that it would further enflame America’s divisions. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump loyalist, tweeted that it is time to heal and move on.
“If Speaker Pelosi pushes impeachment in the last days of the Trump presidency it will do more harm than good,” he wrote. “I’m hopeful President-elect Biden sees the damage that would be done from such action.”
In a video released on Thursday evening, Trump promised a smooth and orderly transition of power, though he stopped short of abandoning his claims of fraud. And on Friday he followed up with a tweet that showed little sign of repentance.
“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future,” he posted. “They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
The president added a fitting coda to his norm-shattering presidency, writing: “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the inauguration on 20 January.”
Pence is expected to attend an event that will feature heightened security and smaller crowds due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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