A trio of House Democrats plan to introduce articles of impeachment against President Trump on Monday for incitement of insurrection following Wednesday’s riots at the U.S. Capitol, multiple sources familiar with the efforts told CBS News.
The articles of impeachment allege Mr. Trump engaged in “high crimes and misdemeanors by willfully inciting violence against the government of the United States.”
Sources told CBS News Mr. Trump does not plan to step down. But for the first time the White House has acknowledged impeachment is a real possibility, saying it would only further divide the country.
The White House on Friday called the articles of impeachment “politically motivated” and repeated Mr. Trump’s claims from the night before that he was calling for “healing and unity.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement Friday it is Democrats’ “sincere hope” that Mr. Trump will “immediately resign.” But, she said that if he does not, she is prepared to move forward on Congressman Jamie Raskin’s 25th Amendment legislation and motion for impeachment.
In a one-hour call with Democratic lawmakers Friday, Pelosi supported removing Mr. Trump from office, although a source on the call told CBS News her preference had been for Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment. President-elect Joe Biden deflected when asked about it on Friday, saying it was “up to Congress to decide.”
The articles of impeachment have 150 cosponsors, a sign of the broad support among House Democrats to take action in the wake of the violence at the Capitol.
CBS News has obtained a memo that was written by Senator Mitch McConnell’s staff and circulated to members Friday evening that lays out a timeline for a potential impeachment trial in the Senate. Without unanimous consent to bring back all senators in the next 10 days, the soonest the Senate could receive articles of impeachment from the House is January 19, the memo states.
Twitter, meanwhile, has permanently suspended the president from the platform, citing “the risk of further incitement of violence,” the company announced late Friday.
CBS
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