Local Democratic members of Congress join call to invoke 25th Amendment to remove President Trump

Friday, January 8, 2021
Local Democrats members of Congress join call to remove President Trump
Lawmakers in the tri-state area are joining the call to remove President Trump from office.

WASHINGTON (WPVI) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, which would open a pathway to forcibly remove President Donald Trump from office.

Lawmakers from Congressional Districts in the tri-state area are joining that call.

"I believe he is just a clear and present danger," said Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D - Delaware), who was seen praying in the balcony of the House as an angry mob of Trump supporters overtook the US Capitol Building on Wednesday.

"I do believe that we should not go another day with someone in office who does not care about all of the people," Rochester added.

Delaware Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons both just back from Washington and are calling for the immediate removal of Trump.

"We have a very short time until the inauguration, but we need to take whatever action we can to make sure that he doesn't do anything else to further weaken or endanger our democracy," said Coons.

Coons was one of several lawmakers on the Senate floor debating the certification of the Electoral College votes when police rushed him to a secure location.

"The president should step down, enough already, just step down and do no harm," said Carper.

SEE ALSO: Could President Trump be removed from office? Here's what experts are saying

The violent takeover by Donald Trump supporters and rioters in the nation's capital has prompted lawmakers in both parties to discuss removing the president from office.

One of the loudest calls to remove Trump is coming from Rep. Madeleine Dean (D - Pennsylvania).

"I'm calling for the invocation of the 25th amendment- if ever there was a time to identify this president is unfit for office," she said.

Perry Dane, a law professor at Rutgers University and former clerk for Justice William Brennan, explains with less than two weeks until inauguration, there's not enough time to go through the process.

"Once it's invoked, the president can challenge it. It goes to Congress, and Congress has 21 days to look into the matter," said Dane.

Rep. Dwight Evans (D - Pennsylvania) agrees that Trump should be removed.

"I believe there's a question of accountability. And I believe that the president is not above accountability," he said.

Rep Brenden Boyle (D - Pennsylvania) brings up concerns about the timeline of removing the President, but he still supports the idea of enforcing repercussions for Trump's actions leading up to the violence.

"There are only 13 days left on the Trump presidency, but I do believe there have to be consequences," he said.

"We have two judicial systems. We have two systems for policing. You have a system for Black folk and a system for whites," Custis said.

6abc reached out to Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R - Pennsylvania), Sen. Pat Toomey (R - Pennsylvania) and Sen. Jeff Van Drew (R - New Jersey) on Thursday to talk about calls to invoke the 25th Amendment. None of their offices returned our calls.

But Fitzpatrick did Tweet about Wednesday's chaos saying: "The President of the United States has been lying to his supporters with false information and false expectations. He lit the flame of incitement and owns responsibility for this."

Sen. Van Drew focused his comments on the rioters and not the president.

"Violence is something that is not acceptable or is it necessary in our country," he said Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, Rep. Dean says she believes Congress could go through the process of invoking the 25th Amendment relatively quickly if they can secure a majority vote.