Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) on Monday blocked Democrats from introducing a resolution to call on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Donald Trump.
The Democrat-backed resolution calls on Pence and the cabinet to “declare what is obvious to a horrified Nation: That the President is unable to successfully discharge the duties and powers of his office.”
Democrats can now bring the resolution up for a vote on Tuesday on the resolution. Last week, Mooney was among the GOP lawmakers who did not vote to certify key states for President-elect Joe Biden.
Pence has not issued a public comment on the matter. The Epoch Times reached out to the White House for comment.
It came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday said lawmakers need to “act with urgency” and said Trump is an immediate danger to the Constitution. The move came after protesters breached the U.S. Capitol building, with Democrats claiming that Trump incited violence.
“As the days go by, the horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action,” she wrote in a letter. Pelosi later said on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” that she prefers using the 25th Amendment—which requires Pence and a majority of cabinet members to initiate—over impeachment.
On Monday, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the head of the campaign arm for House Republicans, said it would be better if Democrats and Republicans worked to resolve differences before Jan. 20.
“The violence we saw unfold in our nation’s capital last week has no place in our democracy,” Emmer said. “It was a disgusting and dangerous spectacle that ultimately cost people their lives.”
He added, “It is a politically motivated effort by Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats that will fracture our nation even more instead of bringing us together.”
The lawmaker noted that the anger that sparked the Capitol breach was, in part, triggered by years of “fomenting the type of vitriol that has been dividing our nation over the course of many years and it has to stop.”
Trump told the crowd beforehand that their protest suggests “the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country” and “let us walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.” The president did not tell the protesters to breach the Capitol or commit acts of violence and later condemned the violence that did occur. Trump told the protesters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices be heard.”
Also Monday, House Democrats introduced an article of impeachment and charged the president with “incitement of insurrection.”
“He also willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged—and foreseeably resulted in—lawless action at the Capitol,” the resolution stated, adding that “members of the crowd he had addressed, in an attempt to, among other objectives, interfere with the Joint Session’s solemn constitutional duty to certify the results of the 2020 Presidential election, unlawfully breached and vandalized the Capitol, injured and killed law enforcement personnel, menaced Members of Congress, the Vice President, and Congressional personnel, and engaged in other violent, deadly, destructive, and seditious acts.”
Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Democrats in the House have virtually no chance of succeeding.
“The case cannot come to trial in the Senate. Because the Senate has rules, and the rules would not allow the case to come to trial until, according to the majority leader, until 1 p.m. on January 20th, an hour after President Trump leaves office,” Dershowitz said in a Fox Business interview on Sunday.
From The Epoch Times
