The top Democrats in the US called on Thursday for President Donald Trump’s immediate removal from office after his supporters stormed the Capitol in a shocking assault on the heart of American democracy.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Mr Trump should be urgently removed from power, branding him “a very dangerous person who should not continue in office.”
“This is an emergency of the highest magnitude,” the top-ranking Democrat in Congress said as she urged Vice President Mike Pence and Mr Trump’s cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment.
It followed an earlier similar call from Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, who said Mr Trump “should not hold office one day longer.”
“If the Vice President and the Cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president,” the Democrat said.
Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois, also called for invoking the 25th Amendment, which has only been used before when a president has undergone a surgical procedure.
“It’s time to evoke the 25th amendment and end this nightmare,” Mr Kinzinger said. “The president is unfit. And the president is unwell.”
Invoking the amendment would make Mr Pence president for the remaining two weeks the administration has in office.
A group of Democratic House politicians, led by Ilhan Omar and including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, separately announced they have drawn up a resolution on articles of impeachment ready for introduction.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s spokeswoman on Thursday said he condemns the violence “in the strongest possible terms”.
“Let me be clear: The violence we saw yesterday at our nation’s Capitol was appalling, reprehensible and antithetical to the American way,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters.
“We condemn it – the president and this administration – in the strongest possible terms.”
The calls for Mr Trump’s removal came a day after his supporters stormed the Capitol in a violent attempt to prevent the certification by Congress of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.
Mr Trump responded to Congress’s late-night certification of Mr Biden’s election win by pledging an “orderly transition” – but once again refused to concede, repeating the unfounded allegations of election fraud that fuelled the mob assault on Congress.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
Pool/Sipa USA
‘Unprecedented assault’
Mr Biden is set to announce the nomination as attorney general of Merrick Garland, a federal appeals court judge denied a seat on the US Supreme Court by Republicans five years ago.
“Our democracy’s under unprecedented assault,” Mr Biden said in his home state of Delaware on Wednesday, where he is preparing the transition to be sworn in as president on 20 January.
In an angry, rambling speech outside the White House before the violence, Mr Trump urged his supporters to march to the Capitol and demanded that Mr Pence, who ceremonially led the session, intervene to reverse their defeat.
The vice president refused, and it was ultimately Mr Pence standing before the joint session of Congress who announced his and Mr Trump’s loss to Mr Biden and incoming Vice President Kamala Harris.
Mick Mulvaney, Mr Trump’s former chief of staff, announced following the violence he was resigning as the US special envoy to Northern Ireland and he expected others to step down.
“I can’t stay here, not after yesterday,” Mr Mulvaney told CNBC television.
“And I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of my friends resign over the course of the next 24 to 48 hours.”
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has also confirmed she will resign from Mr Trump’s cabinet following the violence.
“It has deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside,” she said.
Mr Trump did not condemn the violence that unfolded on Wednesday, despite pleas from senior members of his administration.
“I implore the President and all elected officials to strongly condemn the violence that took place yesterday,” acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said.
