House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that the House will proceed with legislation to impeach President Donald Trump as she pushes the vice president and the Cabinet to invoke constitutional authority to force him out.
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Pelosi warned that given last week's Capitol riots, which the Democrats say the president incited, Trump has become "a threat to democracy."
According to US media, the House could take action as soon as Monday as pressure increases on Trump to step aside – something he said he would not do, as his term ends on Jan. 20.
"We will act with urgency because this President represents an imminent threat," Pelosi said in a letter late Sunday to colleagues.
"The horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action."
On Monday, Pelosi's leadership team will seek a vote on a resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence and Cabinet officials to invoke the 25th Amendment, with a full House vote expected on Tuesday.
The amendment allows for the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare a president unfit for office, and the vice president then becomes acting president.
After that, Pence and the Cabinet would have 24 hours to act before the House would move toward impeachment.
According to CNN, Pence has not ruled out invoking the 25th Amendment and wants to reserve the option in case Trump "becomes more unstable."
CNN cited sources inside Pence's team who said that the move was not without its risks, as invoking the 25th Amendment or even to an impeachment process could prompt Trump "to take some sort of rash action putting the nation at risk," according to the report.
House Democrats are expected to introduce articles of impeachment later on Monday. According to media reports, the strategy would be to condemn the president's actions swiftly but delay an impeachment trial in the Senate for 100 days, which would allow President-elect Joe Biden to focus on other priorities as soon as he is inaugurated Jan. 20.
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