WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives expects to begin considering a second impeachment of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, a top Democrat said on Monday after the president was formally accused of inciting insurrection ahead of last week’s storming of the Capitol.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told his fellow Democrats the chamber would start the impeachment proceedings on Wednesday if Vice President Mike Pence does not respond to a request to invoke the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to remove Trump from office, a House aide said.
Passage would make Trump, a Republican, the only U.S. president ever to be impeached twice.
Thousands of people stormed the seat of Congress last week, forcing lawmakers who were certifying Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory into hiding.
Democrats formally introduced their impeachment resolution on Monday. It charges Trump with “incitement of insurrection.”
As the House convened on Monday, Republicans blocked an effort to immediately consider a resolution asking Pence to invoke the never-used 25th Amendment to remove an unfit president.
“The U.S. House must never adopt a resolution that demands the removal of a duly elected president, without any hearings, debate or recorded votes,” said Republican Representative Alex Mooney, who raised the objection.
The House is expected to vote on Tuesday evening on the resolution for use of the 25th Amendment, which allows the vice president and the Cabinet to remove a president who is incapable of fulfilling his duties.
Pence and his fellow Republicans have shown little interest in invoking the amendment, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats have tried to ramp up the pressure on them to act against Trump. They called on Pence to respond within 24 hours after passage of the resolution.
“As our next step, we will move forward with bringing impeachment legislation to the floor,” Pelosi said in a statement.
Trump acknowledged a new administration would take office on Jan. 20 in a video statement after the attack but has not appeared in public. Twitter and Facebook have suspended his accounts.
(Reporting by Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Lisa Lambert, David Morgan, Andy Sullivan, Patricia Zengerle, Steve Holland, Mark Hosenball and Andrea Shalal; Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Scott Malone and Paul Simao)
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