Democrats tell 'unhinged' Trump to step down or be impeached
Democrats tell 'unhinged' Trump to step down or be impeached
WASHINGTON (AFP) - President Donald Trump came under pressure Friday to step down or face impeachment, as the top Democrat in Congress announced she had discussed with the military how to block the "unhinged" leader from the nation’s nuclear arsenal.
As his presidency imploded, Trump put on a final, unrepentant display of division by announcing on Twitter that he will skip the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20.
"To all of those who have asked, I will not be going," he tweeted.
The statement -- while not a surprise from the most divisive president in decades -- scuppered any idea that Trump might seek to spend his remaining 12 days in the White House helping his Democratic successor to calm tensions.
Not since 1869 has an outgoing US president missed the inauguration of the incoming leader, a ceremony symbolizing the peaceful transfer of power.
But two days after Trump incited followers to storm Congress, his presidency is in freefall, with allies walking away and calls for his removal accelerating.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned that Democrats will launch impeachment proceedings unless Trump leaves willingly, or Vice President Mike Pence invokes the 25th Amendment, where the cabinet removes the president.
"If the President does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action," Pelosi wrote.
In another jaw dropping moment, Pelosi also revealed she had spoken Friday with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley about "preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike."
"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," Pelosi wrote.
Democrats in the House of Representatives, who already impeached Trump in a traumatic, partisan vote in 2019, said the unprecedented second impeachment of the president could be ready next week.
"We can act very quickly when we want to," Representative Katherine Clark told CNN.
Whether Republican leaders of the Senate would then agree to hold a lightning fast impeachment trial before the January 20 transition is another matter.
