The impact of Wednesday’s violent riots at the U.S. Capitol are already being felt throughout Washington, D.C., with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle blaming President Trump for inciting the mob with his rhetoric and failing to act quickly enough to stop it.
Donald Trump’s term as President of the United States ends in less than two weeks – but for some, the transfer of power can’t come quickly enough. On Thursday, incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer released a statement calling for Trump to be removed from office effective immediately.
“What happened at the U.S. Capitol yesterday was an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president. This president should not hold office any longer,” the statement began.
"The quickest and most effective way – it can be done today – to remove this president from office would be for the Vice President to immediately invoke the 25th amendment,” Schumer continued. “If the Vice President and the Cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president."
Schumer's fellow New Yorker Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez echoed the calls for the 25th amendment to be invoked, adding that if it is not invoked Thursday, "Congress must reconvene immediately for impeachment and removal proceedings."
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), a member of the House Democratic leadership, while not specifically naming the 25th amendment, called for Trump's removal: "Donald Trump should be impeached, convicted and removed from office immediately."
California Rep. Eric Swalwell also called for Trump's removal.
Hours earlier, Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois became the first GOP lawmaker to publicly call for Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and forcibly remove his own boss from power.
“All indications are that the president has become unmoored, not just from his duty, or even himself, but reality itself. It is for this reason that I call for the vice president and members of the cabinet to ensure the next few weeks are safe for the American people, and that we have a sane captain of the ship,” Kinzinger said in a video statement on Twitter, adding: “It’s time to invoke the 25th Amendment, and to end this nightmare.”
Kinzinger also placed the blame for Wednesday’s violence squarely on President Trump, and did not mince words in his assessment of the president’s mental capacity.
“We cannot forget what led us here,” he said. “The liars and conspiracy authors are already at it again this morning, with false narratives about yesterday’s disaster. Here’s the truth: the president caused this. The president is unfit, and the president is unwell.”
Kinzinger joins nearly one hundred Democratic lawmakers who have already publicly called for Trump to be removed from office.
Rep. Ted Lieu of California was one of the first sitting Democrats to call for Pence to invoke the amendment, claiming the president is “detached from reality.”
Lieu, along with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and David Cicilline (D-RI), have prepared articles of impeachment against President Trump.
Rep. Charlie Crist, current Florida congressman and former governor of the state, similarly tweeted: “It's time to remove the President.”
Rep. Val Demings called for both impeachment and the 25th amendment, as well as criminal charges against Trump: "Everybody counts, but everybody is accountable."
Calls for Trump’s removal extend to the private sector as well. On Wednesday afternoon, National Association of Manufacturers President and CEO Jay Timmons issued a biting statement to those still supporting the president’s claims of election fraud.
“This is not law and order. This is chaos. It is mob rule. It is dangerous. This is sedition and should be treated as such,” Timmons wrote in part. “The outgoing president incited violence in an attempt to retain power, and any elected leader defending him is violating their oath to the Constitution and rejecting democracy in favor of anarchy. Anyone indulging conspiracy theories to raise campaign dollars is complicit.”
“Vice President Pence, who was evacuated from the Capitol, should seriously consider working with the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to preserve democracy,” he added.
Section 4 of the Amendment has never before been invoked, and is something of a legal grey area, giving Congress power to determine if the president has become mentally incapacitated.
“Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President,” the section reads.
This means not only would Vice President Mike Pence have to declare his boss mentally unfit, but at least half of the heads of the 15 executive apartments would need to sign on as well.
Experts say it is highly unlikely for the amendment to be invoked in the coming weeks, but White House staffers are clearly shaken by Wednesday’s events.
Already, a handful of White House staff have resigned, including: Mick Mulvaney, special envoy to Northern Ireland; Stephanie Grisham, chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump and a former White House press secretary; Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews and White House social secretary Rickie Niceta.