WASHINGTON – Today, Common Cause urged every Member of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote to impeach President Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection by a mob that stormed the United States Capitol, leaving five dead, in an attempt to stop certification of the legitimate election of Joe Biden as the next President. The letter urges Members to pass a resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office within 24 hours, and, if they do not, to immediately vote to impeach the President for inciting the deadly insurrection.
“We are a democracy, and we cannot ‘run out the clock’ on a President who incited a deadly riot in an attempt to intimidate lawmakers into overturning the results of a free and fair election,” said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause. “The storming of the Capitol was an attack on our democracy, orchestrated and incited by the President. Every hour that Donald Trump remains in the White House is one hour too many. He must be removed immediately and prohibited from ever holding public office again. Trump has had an army of apologists in Congress throughout his years in office, but it is time now for every Republican in Congress to put their country before their party and expel President Trump from office.”
The President spent months in the leadup to and after the election trying to undermine Americans’ faith in the integrity of our elections. Ultimately, Trump’s attorneys could produce no evidence in the courts, so the President resorted to efforts to pressure elections officials to throw out thousands of votes in predominantly Black and brown communities in order to overturn election results. That effort also proved unsuccessful, but the lies he foisted on his followers contributed to the insurrection at the Capitol.
“Americans expect and deserve a President who respects the United States Constitution, his oath of office, and the results of free and fair elections,” said Aaron Scherb, Common Cause Director of Legislative Affairs. “Donald Trump has shown himself not just to be unworthy of the office of the presidency but further to be a clear and present danger to the nation and our democracy. Congress or the cabinet must act swiftly to remove President Trump from office before he does further harm to the nation.”
Yesterday, House Republicans blocked a request for Unanimous Consent to take up the resolution calling on the Vice President to mobilize the Cabinet to activate the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office. A floor vote is expected to pass the resolution later today. If Vice President Pence does not invoke the 25th Amendment, the House will move forward with impeachment proceedings. The article of impeachment already has more than 200 co-sponsors in the House.
To read the full letter to House members, click here.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.