6 Key Points on Efforts to Oust Trump in Final Days

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Heritage Foundation

 

Here are six things to know about efforts to boot Trump from office before his term ends in less than two weeks. 

1. Could Opponents Use 25th Amendment?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., have called for Pence and the Trump Cabinet to use the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. 

Pelosi said the House could move to impeach Trump if his Cabinet didn’t act. On Friday, she issued a statement calling for Trump to resign or face impeachment:

It is the hope of Members that the president will immediately resign. But if he does not, I have instructed the Rules Committee to be prepared to move forward with Congressman Jamie Raskin’s 25th Amendment legislation and a motion for impeachment. Accordingly, the House will preserve every option–including the 25th Amendment, a motion to impeach or a privileged resolution for impeachment.

Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, introduced his 25th Amendment legislation in October. 

But legal experts say the 25th Amendment is not in play in this case, primarily because Pence reportedly has no plans to call the Cabinet together to remove Trump. 

“The 25th Amendment wouldn’t be applicable here,” Ross Garber, a lawyer who specializes in political investigations and impeachment and teaches at Tulane Law School, told The Daily Signal. 

Garber represented four governors who faced state impeachment investigations in Connecticut, South Carolina, Alabama, and Missouri.