Speaker Nancy Pelosi just threw down the gauntlet against Donald Trump
This morning, incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Mike Pence and the cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and immediately remove Donald Trump from office. This afternoon, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi threw down the gauntlet.
During a speech, Pelosi demanded that Pence invoke the 25th Amendment. She also threatened to impeach Trump if Pence doesn’t immediately do so. It’s not clear what impeachment would even look like with just 12 days left in Trump’s term; impeachment is a complex multi-step process that goes through committees. It’s also unclear whether Mitch McConnell, who still controls the Senate for several more days, would be willing to go along with a fast track impeachment.
But Pelosi’s mere threat to introduce articles of impeachment against Trump does serve to place a lot more pressure on Mike Pence to move forward with the 25th Amendment. Pence is still under the illusion that he has some kind of political future after this. If he concludes that he has to move against Trump in order to preserve his own future viability, he just might do it. So the mounting pressure on him matters.
