Calls grow for Trump to be removed from office; Trump pledges ‘orderly transition’

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Thursday called for President Donald Trump’s immediate removal from office, either by his Cabinet or through impeachment, describing the violence at the Capitol on Wednesday as “an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president.”

A removal would temporarily elevate Vice President Mike Pence, the former governor of Indiana, to president, until Joe Biden is sworn in on Jan. 20.

“What happened at the U.S. Capitol yesterday was an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president,” Schumer said in a statement. “This president should not hold office one day longer.”

Schumer said the “quickest and most effective way” to remove Trump would be under the 25th Amendment.

Under that process, the president can be removed from office by the vice president plus a majority of the Cabinet, or by the vice president and a body established by Congress, if they determine he “is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”

“If the Vice President and the Cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president,” Schumer said.

The Democratic-led House impeached Trump last year related to political overtures to Ukraine, but he was acquitted by the Republican-led Senate.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked against Trump, becoming the highest-profile Republican to press for the president to be relieved of his official duties.

“Sadly, yesterday, it became evident that not only has the president abdicated his duty to protect the American people and the people’s House, he invoked and inflamed passions that only gave fuel to the insurrection that we saw here,” Kinzinger said in a video he posted on Twitter on Thursday morning.

“When pressed to move and denounce the violence, he barely did so, while of course victimizing himself and seeming to give a wink and a nod to those doing it,” the Illinois Republican added, referring to the Twitter video in which Trump on Wednesday called on the rioters to “go home” but told them: “We love you. You’re very special.”

“All indications are that the president has become unmoored – not just from his duty or even his oath, but from reality itself,” Kinzinger said. “It is for this reason that I call for the vice president and members of the Cabinet to ensure that the next few weeks are safe for the American people, and that we have a sane captain of the ship.”

Kinzinger said that it is time to invoke the 25th Amendment “to end this nightmare.”

Earlier Thursday, Trump pledged an “orderly transition” in a statement issued shortly after Vice President Mike Pence announced Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election at the end of a joint session of Congress that was disrupted for hours by violent Trump supporters.

Trump’s statement stopped short of conceding to Biden, who plans to address the nation Thursday and introduce his nominees for several top Justice Department posts.

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54 thoughts on “Calls grow for Trump to be removed from office; Trump pledges ‘orderly transition’

  1. Sounds like Congress is back to the Impeach Trump move, Guess the 4th time is a charm? Why create another fight? He will be gone from office in 13 days…

    1. Because he’s proven, yet again, he should never be eligible for office again. That Republicans took a mob coming for their heads to come to this conclusion is sad but not surprising.

    1. IBJ is feverishly promoting all liberal talking points. It is irritating, but they are still a good rag for business.

    2. No Dan, they are reprinting an article from the Washington Post which all throughout the article blames Trump and his supporters. I, for one, don’t believe it was Trump supporters who broke in.

      100s of Trump rallys were held all across this country, including in DC, for 4 years, and never any violence like this.

      On the other hand, we saw violent riots all summer long from the other side.

      There are two americas it seems.

    3. what are the conservative view points on this, that what happened is ok?

      its ignorant to respond with a comment like you did….

      conservatives respect state rights and know that each state sets the rules for their own election, the federal government doesn’t tell the states how to operate. Interfering with the electoral college and attempting to change what the states did is the most anti conservative thing imaginable.

      Im a conservative but Im a big enough person to recognize when my side fails and not to blame “liberals” for the ineptitude of the republican president.

    1. Ask Mike Braun, who got hustled out of the Senate yesterday. He publicly declared he was protesting the election and I am pretty sure he FINALLY realized that words do matter and CHANGED HIS MIND! Maybe the Democrats have changed their minds?

  2. The IBJ more and more is a left leaning rag as proven by this article.

    With the Socialist Marxist Communist Democrat Anarchist Globalist coming into power, expect it to be worse.

    Back to the story…

    Yesterday proved the tyrants awakened a sleeping giant and are scared as should be.

    Of course they would want to pull their Marxist stunt as to gloat. Pence has proven to be a Swamp Traitor and backstabber so he will fit in well with what the government trotted down to.

    1. Yipes – I guess I better get prepared.
      One question Darrell – does your other brother Darrell (Daryl?) espouse similar dystopian views?

  3. No good excuse for riots at the Capitol. That’s easy.

    Democrats need to look forward from January 20th forward. No good excuse for pitching fits and losing focus.

    Quit playing in the mud with each other. I’ve just about lost faith in both parties.

  4. I will be interested to know if the ones who were violent and broke into the capitol were antifa? the guy wearing the headdress is easily identifiable as someone who regularly organizes antifa riots. could it be that the huge peaceful Trump rally provided just the cover they needed to go in and create chaos? I’m sure I am not the only person wondering – will the media ever report who actually caused the violence? no they won’t – it will go down in history as trump supporters did it

    1. Yep.. The ANTIFA cover story is another good lie meant to keep manipulating the people that have already bought in to all of the other lies from the post-truth Trump Republicans.

    2. No I think Don A is right. I saw some of those crazy helmets they wear and I’m pretty sure they weren’t Trumper’s trying to disguise themselves as Antifa. Their clearly were many Trump supporters and there is zero excuse for what they did, but it will be interesting to see what role and involvement Antifa had in the whole mess.

    3. The media is covering who broke in and starting to identify the people. Antifa is *not* rising to the top…..

    4. The guy you’re referring to is easily identified at numerous Qanon events and Trump rallies. He was photographed with your boy Rudy. Stop reading Facebook and Newsmax.

    5. I read neither of those Wesley. Was simply using my own two eyes. Thank you for the correction though

  5. Be removed for what. He didn’t ask for a few nuts to go ape on our pathetic excuse for a congress. If these leftist Democrats remove President Trump early look for things to get worse… much worse.

    1. Oh… But he did ask for exactly that. He he held a rally asking for the crowd to keep fighting.

    2. You are willfully ignorant of reality because you find the truth uncomfortable.

      Trump told people to come to Washington DC yesterday. He whipped them into a frenzy with his lies and told them to go march down to the Capitol. Which, conveniently, wasn’t nearly as well secured as it was this summer.

      We did not have a peaceful transfer of power due to his actions. It’s permanently disqualifying behavior. He is a threat to the American way of life.

      It’s very simple – you either support Trump and are OK with an authoritarian country, or you’re not. It’s passed being a Democrat or a Republican thing.

    3. yes he did! he did exactly that…. you can be a trump supporter but my god wake up to reality. Trump destroyed the republican party and will go down as the worst president of all time.

      I am a conservative, I vote republican but can also admit when my side is being ridiculous. take off the blinders.

  6. So frustrated with the stunning hypocrisy of a media that excused political violence for months – how many people and cops have been killed since this all started in May? There will never be unity with such a dishonest & biased media.

    1. Different issues, Don… remind me about the rally this summer when the leaders had people March into Congress and led to Congress having to evacuate?

      There are two Americas and only one of them is still interested in democracy. The other is only interested in an authoritarian government just like Russia and China. That’s what Trump wants, but so many are too angry to see it.

  7. Not only should Trump be removed, but all 147 members of Congress who continue to insist that the election results were dishonest should be prosecuted for a seditious conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America. Their “objections” are nothing more than a sham–based on lies–and nothing less than a declaration of civil war against our democracy.

    1. It is a Constitutional Republic not a ‘democracy”. And yea in a Constitutional Republic the founders provided specifics that states electoral college was to be certified by legislative body. So Congress kind of had a responsibility to challenge the electors that states submitted if they didn’t meet the Constitutional criteria.
      It is 4400 words take a look at it some time.

    2. But they did. Clearly. And it had been cleanly ruled as such by every court it had been challenged.

  8. Trump didn’t cause division, folks. He exposed the absolute corrupt and rigged system of DC which reacted very strongly to the threat to it. Trump has red pilled tens of millions of Americans to truly see how gross our political system has become.

    1. Trump so turned Establishment power structure on it head and exposed the media for the hypocrisies, he must be destroyed now the Marxist have control executive and legislative power structures. They just can’t wait, they are like 14 year old boys with a hooker.

    2. Steve – can you explain what was corrupt and rigged?

      I honestly don’t understand what Trump supporters are so angry about and how Trump is helping them in a measurable way. He didn’t build the wall. He didn’t bring back coal or manufacturing jobs. How has he helped the majority of his supporters?

  9. Doesn’t Chuck Schumer’s “White Privilege” eliminate him from having an opinion. He is a White Male and woke, he is the epitome of the oppressor.

  10. Joe Biden is not a Marxist, far from it. IBJ is not a leftist newspaper; it is a business journal reporting the news of the day.The people that broke into the Capitol were wearing MAGA hats and carrying Trump banners.

  11. Steve R, you might also want to consult these words from the United States Code: If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

    These 147 members of Congress’ objection to the election results is a sham conspiracy to overturn the legitimacy of an outcome they do not like and nothing more. It’s a declaration of civil war. They should be prosecuted.

  12. I find it most interesting that for the last 7 plus months of BLM and Antifa riots, burning’s, looting’s, property damages and even shootings and killings, they were all called “peaceful protests” by all the mainstream media. They wouldn’t even mention the word riot, as our cities burned and businesses were destroyed and ruined.
    Now, it’s an instantaneous media cry of ‘riots by Trump supporters’. I watched and listened to the entire protests in live real time. It was a peaceful protest until the Capitol police started firing plastic bullets and spraying tear gas. When the real truth comes out, if it’s allowed to, it sure looks like the trouble makers were not part of the actual Trump supporters but outside groups who came just to cause havoc.
    To me this day was no different than the last 7+ months of the same old, same old, just a different side this time.

    1. Journalist Andy Ngo, who has become an expert on the violent anarchist group antifa, today dismissed claims by President Trump’s supporters that the group was behind the pro-Trump riots on Capitol Hill.

      “The people occupying the Capitol building do not look like antifa people dressed in Trump gear or Trump costumes,” he said in an interview from England.

      “I have seen no evidence that they are able to coordinate a mass infiltration on this scale before, so I’m really skeptical that they would have been able to do it here without any of that information leaking out,” he said.

      Ngo has infiltrated antifa and Black Lives Matter camps in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, and covered their violent actions in those cities last year. He has been brutally attacked by antifa and had his life threatened several times for reporting on the group, often vividly on Twitter.

      https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/expert-andy-ngo-it-wasnt-antifa-at-the-capitol-riots

    2. Well Kevin, you are wrong. I was watching Ali Velshi on MSNBC during the Minneapolis riots, and he called them violent rioters multiple times. He contrasted that with the peaceful protests earlier in the day. That same story was told in many other American cities. You are just believing right wing propoganda that’s telling you no one called what happened in the summer riots. They did, and you are flat out wrong. I hope you come back to reality some day.

  13. I feel certain that all of us combined within this commentary don’t even know half of the truths and/or untruths on any given political matter. This one being no different. The dense smoke of propaganda, deception, and agendas is suffocating. To think that we may know enough of the truths to render even a guess of what’s reality from our vantage points is simply preposterous.

    1. We do know we saw Trump on video say to the rioters “we love you, you’re very special people”.

    2. So, don’t drain the swamp. Trust the elites. Mock all those who rant and rave about how things are “corrupt” and “rigged”, because they’re simple folk who don’t understand reality.

      That really the message you’re sending?

  14. For those of you claiming the rioters with antifa…… in Trump’s public announcement after the riots started he said he “loved” them, so I guess you are saying he has full embraced antifa?

  15. Did any of the less than educated on here look at the latest footage of these “rampaging” Trump supporters in the Capital Building? They show pictures of them actually staying inside the velvet guides for visitors. We see some doors, with windows in them, that have already been broken and chairs stacked up on the other side. Ashli Babbit, the U.S. Air Force VETERAN, not armed or doing anything particularly threatening on the other side of these doors. Behind her are about 20 police in riot gear seeming be watching the 4 or 5 “rioters” in front of the door. On the other side of the barricaded door a plain clothes cop, who is pointing a gun all along. He steps forward and quite deliberately points the gun, at point blank range, and shoots Ashli Babbit in the head. The ridiculous police behind Ms Babbit, start yelling “acitve shooter, active shooter”, I guess not realizing the “active shooter” is a police officer. If anyone thought George Floyd was deliberately killed watch this new footage. Where were these same “capital police” when BLM and Antifa tried to storm the White House last summer? Did they shoot any of the rioters then. Yes, last summer those were real rioters burning and looting and bordering on actual mayhem. The Democrat politicians that day seemed to say (paraphrasing of course) Que Sera, sera.

    1. I hope you find help and come back to reality. Did the BLM rioters ever jump the White House gates? No. Did the racist Trump supporters jump the Capitol barriers? Yes. If BLM protesters ever got that close to the Capitol, they would have been shot. Then you and Bob would be celebrating. You only hate Black people protesting equal rights, not white people living in a delusional world.

  16. What happened yesterday should never have happened. What happened in urban America all last summer should never have happened. Yesterday authorities came in and put the madness to bed immediately. Our large urban centers stood back and watched our inner cities burn. Where was the outrage then. The hypocrisy of our news organizations is unbelievable.

    1. Were you not watching when they allowed white people to attack the Capitol for over 4 hours, while standing by? Were you not watching BLM protesters being tear gassed and shot with rubber bullets on Alabama Street in Indianapolis? The hypocrisy in your brain is unbelievable. I hope you find help and come back to reality.

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