Donald Trump finished Thursday evening (7) with a strange speech even by his criteria. After being unblocked by Twitter, the current President of the United States posted a video on the social network in which he condemned the attack on Capitol Hill, promised a peaceful transition of power and forgot to say the word “fraud”, well that he mentions a very rare one in his vocabulary: reconciliation.
Days after the Republican’s term ended, no one believes in a transformation of the most controversial American leader in the country’s recent history. Trump is trapped, under the cloud of withdrawal, either by impeachment or by the use of the 25th Constitutional Amendment, even though some want him to facilitate the process and resign.
The strongest demands come, of course, from the Democrats, who have started to suggest the possibility of removing Trump from power the minute after the insurgency led by supporters of the president and inflated by himself.
This Friday (8), Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, again defended that MP Mike Pence and at least half of the government cabinet activate the provision provided in the Constitution that would allow the immediate release of Trump from power under justification of incapacity.
As neither Pence nor the Secretaries of the White House have publicly shown their willingness to do so, she reiterated the threat to initiate an impeachment process, although the feasibility of carrying out this action, due to the lack of time until Joe Biden takes over the presidency and the composition of Congress, is unlikely.
According to the CNN news network, citing a person familiar with the matter, the first draft of the Trump removal process would, at this point, have the support of 131 Democratic Party members, more than there are. had at that time in 2019, when an impeachment of the president was approved in the House.
Democrats currently have a majority in the House, but Republicans have a majority in the Senate until the two new senators elected by Georgia take office. This is expected to happen in the coming weeks, but the date is not yet set.
Although Trump’s departure from the White House is very near, Pelosi says the immediate withdrawal is necessary because the president is unbalanced. The speech of course hides the urge to see the Republican leave his post humiliated, not to mention the chance that once approved, an impeachment would prevent a candidacy from Trump in 2024.
Whether for political or security reasons, with scenes of chaos on Capitol Hill still fresh in memory, the Democrat says she spoke with the country’s military command chief Mark Milley to find a way to prevent the President launches a nuclear attack in his final days at the White House.
There is no information, as of yet, that the current president intends to take such steps, but Pelosi wants to make sure Trump does not have access to nuclear codes if he decides to carry out an attack, a prerogative of the American leader, who is also the leader. of the armed forces.
Still on the Democratic side, Biden criticized Trump, “a disgrace to the country,” “someone who does not deserve to be in the presidency,” but, when it came to voting on the recall, he said. removed the body. For the elected president, in a somewhat labyrinthine declaration, Congress decides on Congress decisions.
The pressure on Trump, however, is not just coming from the rival side. Lisa Murkowski, from Alaska, was not only the first Republican senator to publicly and unequivocally advocate for the partisan’s departure, as she has suggested leaving the legend if her colleagues remain aligned with him.
The threat of defection, accompanied by strong statements – “He’s done enough damage already, he just wants to keep the title, because of his ego” – comes at a time of party weakness in the Senate. With the election of Democrats in Georgia, the majority in the House will be Democrats, as the composition will be tied among legends, and the casting vote will go to future MP Kamala Harris.
Thus, Republicans’ bargaining power would lose strength without Murkowski, who compared to Trump’s departure already had the support of two other MPs from his party, Adam Kinzinger and Steve Stivers. Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, more timidly, said he would consider voting to impeach Trump if the House reopens an impeachment process.
Another to call for resignation, in an editorial, was The Wall Street Journal, a conservative-line publication owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox News and the New York Post tabloid – both of whom have lived at a era closer to the President.
According to the editorial, the invasion of Capitol Hill triggered by Trump’s narrative “was an attack on the constitutional process of transfer of power after an election” and also “an attack on the legislature of an executive who vowed to defend the laws American ”.
“It crosses a constitutional line that Trump has never crossed. This is a reason for dismissal, ”the newspaper said.
The editorial, however, discusses whether the impeachment process or the forcible removal of the president through the 25th Amendment would really be good options. The Wall Street Journal says that an indictment “so late in his tenure would further anger Trump supporters in a way that would not help Biden speak out” and that if Pence appealed for the 25th Amendment, that “would give him more reasons to play the victim. policy”.
So, says the newspaper, “the best way would be to take personal responsibility” and to leave the post voluntarily.
If Trump’s Thursday ended with the end of the temporary Twitter blockade, Republican Friday will end with a permanent ban on the internet platform for “risk of incitement to violence.”
Anyone who accesses the Republican’s profile will find a blank page, without even his photo. The president had previously been blocked by Facebook and Instagram at least until Biden’s inauguration ceremony, scheduled for January 20.
Twitter said the social network exists for users to listen directly to world leaders, but that “for years we have made it clear that these accounts are not above our rules and cannot use the platform to incite violence “.
Behind the scenes, according to the Washington Post, hundreds of company employees in a letter demanded that social media executives permanently suspend the president’s profile.
In the request, addressed to the platform’s president, Jack Dorsey, and its key executives, around 350 employees also called for an investigation into corporate decisions Twitter made in recent years helped to foment the invasion of the US Congress. .
Now a cornered Trump is definitely losing one of his greatest virtual megaphones.