Minnesota's Congressional Democrats Call For Trump's Removal
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Democrats in Minnesota's congressional delegation are calling for President Donald Trump to be removed from office either by impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment after he urged his supporters Wednesday to march on the U.S. Capitol, where a mob attacked the building, spurred on by repeated claims from the president that the election was stolen.
Rep. Ilhan Omar drew up new articles of impeachment in the immediate aftermath of the violence.
"The question is where do we go from here," Omar said. "First we need to immediately impeach and remove this president. He is a clear threat to our country and democracy. Every day he remains in officer of the presidency overseeing the military and nuclear arsenal is a day the safety of the American people and the world is threatened."
Joining the call to impeach the president was Rep. Dean Phillips. In a tweet, he urged his colleagues in Congress to remain in Washington to go through with the process. The highest-ranking Democrat on Capitol Hill, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the soon-to-be-majority leader, also announced Thursday that he supports impeachment if Trump's Cabinet and Vice President Mike Pence don't invoke the 25th Amendment to unseat the president.
Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith told WCCO-TV she supports either impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said on WCCO This Morning that she supported impeaching Trump more than a year ago.
"I believe this outgoing President is a danger to our democracy and he will be a danger as long as he is in office," Smith said.
Reps. Betty McCollum and Angie Craig both tweeted Thursday encouraging members of Trump's Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, which would require action from a majority of Cabinet members and the vice president to remove Trump. In her statement on the new articles of impeachment, Omar said she didn't trust Trump's Cabinet to stand up to him in the 13 days left in his term.
In the end two Minnesota Republicans joned 139 House members and eight Senators in voting not to certify the election results. Rep. Jim Hagedorn voted "no," citing "liberal activists" whose "unilateral and unconstitutional actions influenced the outcome of elections." And Rep. Michelle Fischbach said "this election was shrouded in allegations of irregularities and fraud."
No Republicans in the Minnesota delegation have called for Trump's removal, although some did condemn the attack at the Capitol perpetuated by rioters waving Trump flags. Rep. Tom Emmer called the what happened a "display of violence that runs counter to everything we stand for as a country." So far, only one Republican congressman, Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, has called for Trump's removal.
Minnesota's Democrats are united in wanting the President out of office before the Jan. 20 inauguration. Rep. Dean Phillips says he now backs impeachment.
"He has to be out, has to be out, in one day the course of a country can change in perpetuity as we saw yesterday and we came awfully close to something we could not imagine even possibly in our lifetimes," Phillips said.
