President Donald Trump said that the pressure campaign for Trump’s cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment will fail, while adding that after last week’s protests and violence at the U.S. Capitol, “now is the time for our nation to heal.”
“It’s time for peace and calm,” Trump added, saying that respect for law enforcement is part of the “MAGA agenda.”
Over the past week, critics have claimed Trump incited violence during his speech to supporters near the Capitol, despite him asking his supporters to protest peacefully.
It’s prompted calls by Democrats to invoke the 25th Amendment of the Consitution, and, at the same time, House Democrats have introduced articles of impeachment over his speech. Big Tech companies including Twitter, Facebook, and Google have suspended Trump’s accounts.
“Free speech is under assault like never before. The 25th Amendment is of zero-risk to me but will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden administration,” the president remarked to reporters in Texas—the first time he has addressed the push for his cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment, which would need the support of Vice President Mike Pence and at least half of his cabinet.
“As the expression goes, be careful what you wish for,” Trump said, perhaps referring to the idea that Democrats might invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President-elect Joe Biden to bring in Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris. Some conservatives have argued that it was the Democrats’ plan all along to use the amendment to install Harris, a Senator from California, as president since Biden—at age 78—could be the oldest person to ever become president.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told “60 Minutes” that she supports Pence invoking the amendment.
“Well I like the 25th Amendment because it gets rid of him. He’s out of office. But there’s strong support in the Congress for impeaching the president a second time,” the California Democrat said.
The House could vote on impeachment this week after articles were introduced, although Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said his chamber won’t take it up until Jan. 19, which is one day before Inauguration Day.
Earlier in the day, before he left for Texas, the president addressed being censored from social media platforms.
“People thought that what I said was totally appropriate and if you look at what other people have said, politicians at a high level, about the riots in the summer, the horrible riots in Portland and Seattle and various other places, that was the real problem,” Trump said about his Jan. 6 address, adding that tech companies that delete accounts or content that they deemed politically sensitive will fail.
