Resolution passed to impeach Trump: They ask Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment

The House of Representatives of the US Congress on Tuesday evening adopted a resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence to initiate the procedure provided for in the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution, in order to remove President Donald Trump from office, the Voice of America reports.

Impeachment of the President under the 25th Amendment requires the Vice President and a majority of the President's Cabinet to declare that the President is unfit to perform his constitutional duty.

The resolution was adopted with 223 votes in favor and 205 against.

Pence was given 24 hours to declare whether he is ready to act on the adopted resolution.

However, before the vote, the US Vice President had already told Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi that he was opposed to initiating the 25th Amendment.

"I do not believe that such a move is in the best interest of our nation or consistent with our Constitution," Pence said in a letter sent by his cabinet to Pelosi, Voice of America reports.

The US vice president said the energy of the current administration is focused on ensuring an orderly transfer of power and urged her and other members of Congress to avoid moves that would "further divide citizens and inflame passions."

"Work with us to keep the temperature down and the country united as we prepare to inaugurate Joe Biden as the next President of the United States," Pence wrote.

At the same time, the House of Representatives plans to vote on the impeachment of President Trump on Wednesday, unless he resigns or is dismissed before that.

Members of the lower house of the US Congress accused Trump of inciting a riot before some of his supporters stormed the Capitol Hill complex.

As first reported by the New York Times, and then confirmed by Reuters, Republican leaders in the Senate decided not to pressure members of their party to vote against the impeachment of President Trump and let them vote "according to their own conscience."

Also, the "New York Times" announced that Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, told his associates that he believes that Donald Trump has committed offenses for which he should be impeached.

According to that newspaper, he also told them that he was satisfied that the Democrats had initiated the impeachment process, Voice of America reports.

President Trump's tight grip on the Republican Party showed new signs of weakening as at least four Republicans announced they would vote to impeach the president, according to Voice of America.

Liz Cheney, the third-ranking leader of her party in the House of Representatives, said: "There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States - a betrayal of his position and his oath to the Constitution."

Republican congressmen John Katko and Adam Kinzinger also said they would vote for a second impeachment of President Trump, joined by Fred Upton and Jamie Herrera Butler.

If Donald Trump were to be impeached in the House of Representatives, he would become the only US president to have it happen twice during his term.

After that, a hearing should be held in the Senate and a decision made on whether Trump will be removed from office, despite the fact that the session would probably last longer than nine days, the time period remaining until the end of his term, according to the Voice of America.

However, the Senate's decision would prevent Trump from resuming work in the public sphere - ending his possible ambitions to be a presidential candidate in 2024.

During that time, President Trump blamed Democrats in Congress for the "tremendous anger" that exists in the country.

In his first address to reporters since last week's storming of the Capitol, the president on Tuesday did not claim any responsibility for the mob's invasion of the Capitol, but also said he "didn't want any violence."

Trump defended his fiery rhetoric in addressing protesters last Sunday as "totally appropriate" and showed no remorse for the attack that followed, VOA reports.

Commenting on the impeachment process, Trump said: "It's terrible what they're doing."

"If they continue down that path, I think there is a huge threat to our country and huge anger," he said. "I don't want violence."

The president spoke to reporters before leaving for Texas, but did not answer their questions.

Trump and Pence met at the White House late Monday night, the first time since the president's supporters stormed the Capitol last Sunday.

A senior administration official said the president and vice president stressed that "those who broke the law and stormed the Capitol last Sunday do not represent the America First movement that supports 75 million Americans, and vowed to continue working on behalf of the entire country until the end of their term." mandate," Voice of America reports.

Pence angered President Trump when he rejected his request to vote in Congress to support an initiative to not recognize the results of the November election, which Trump and Pence lost to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Although Trump's four-year term expires at noon on January 20, the four-page impeachment resolution states that Trump "has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if he is allowed to remain in office."

The impeachment resolution cites Trump's baseless accusations that he did not win a second four-year term due to fraud and irregularities in voting and vote counting, his pressuring of officials in the southern state of Georgia to "find" him the more than 11.000 votes needed to overtake Biden, and his statements at a rally last Wednesday when he called on thousands of supporters to march on the Capitol to pressure members of Congress to change the election results.

218 Democrats have announced they will vote for the resolution, securing a majority in the 435-member House of Representatives without a single Republican vote against the outgoing president.

However, it is not clear whether House leaders will immediately send the resolution to the Senate, where a trial would be held on whether Trump should be impeached, given that his term ends next week.

And after Trump leaves office, the Senate's decision to impeach him could mean he can't run for president again.

Biden said that he "hopes and expects" that the Senate will be able to simultaneously hold the impeachment trial and confirm his nominations for Cabinet members after taking office, and also adopt a new package of aid to the American economy weakened by the coronavirus pandemic.