After a frightening and tumultuous Wednesday that left four dead on Capitol Hill, lawmakers affirmed the Electoral College victory that will put Joe Biden in the White House later this month.
This week, many legislators called for early removal of President Donald Trump, saying the mob that stormed the Capitol was spurred by Trump's speech to the crowd Wednesday and his repeated statements trying to delegitimize the election results.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Trump should resign or be impeached, drawing a response from the White House which called it not helpful and contended it could divide the country further. The calls to resign or be impeached were also called partisan, with Sen. Pat Toomey, R-PA, saying in a cable news interview Saturday he was concerned an impeachment resolution could be "completely politicized." Toomey also said he believes Trump committed impeachable offenses.
One local representative was asked Friday if impeaching was a partisan move, and said her concern was more about the safety of the nation.
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"I don’t think we have a choice" but to move toward removing Trump, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon told NBC10's Lauren Mayk.
"I think we have a very strong consensus that this president is a clear and present danger to our country, that we cannot wait until January 20th," Scanlon said.
The 25th Amendment says the vice president and a majority of principal officers of executive departments “or of such other body as Congress” may provide a declaration to Congress that the president “is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
Politics
At that point, the vice president would assume the powers of acting president.
Impeachment would have to move quickly, which could mean a privileged resolution on the house floor that would not have to go through the Judiciary committee.
In the aftermath and amid the increasing calls to remove Trump, here is what members of Congress from our region are saying:
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-PA
Toomey appeared on Fox News Saturday and was asked his position on impeachment.
"I don't know what they are going to send over and I...one of the things I'm concerned about frankly is whether the House would completely politicize something," he said. "I do think the President committed impeachable offenses, but I don't know what is going to land on the Senate floor, if anything."
Other remarks from Scanlon, D-PA
"If he doesn’t resign, if the cabinet and vice president don’t invoke the 25th amendment, then I think Congress should move quickly to impeach him….this coming week."
But she said talks were fluid and could go in a few different directions.
"I think people just expressing a lot of trying to sort through what are the available options, how quickly we can move. Their sense that we are at a very dangerous moment for our country and that we do have to move forward, we have to act in some way."
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA)
Thursday, Houlahan called for Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and said if that did not occur, Congress would move for impeachment.
“Should the administration fail to acknowledge the grave threat this President poses to our citizenry and should they fail remove him from office before he can do more harm, then the Congress must use the remedies that we have and likely again proceed with further Articles of Impeachment," Houlahan said in a statement.
She explains more to NBC10's Steven Fisher in the Jan. 10 video above.
Rep. Donald Norcross, D-NJ
Sen. Bob Casey, D-PA
Casey sent us a statement Thursday.
"While shocking, yesterday’s events were entirely foreseeable. They were the direct result of President Trump’s lies about the integrity of our most recent election, and his frequent incitements to violence. For weeks, the President has lied about his decisive defeat, promoting wild conspiracy theories about unsubstantiated fraud and encouraging this insurrection. But he didn’t do it alone. President Trump was aided and abetted every step of the way by a multitude of Republicans in both the House and Senate who, after four years of enabling his authoritarian tendencies, yesterday sought to invalidate the will of the very people they serve. These members of Congress, along with President Trump, are responsible for this direct assault on our democracy and on our Nation’s Capitol Building. Their collective actions and words put lives at risk, and struck at the heart of our most fundamental democratic principles.
President Trump is a threat to our domestic and national security. It is self-evident that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. I call on Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and begin the process of removing the powers of the presidency from Donald Trump. This is the quickest way to protect our domestic and national security."
Sen. Chris Coons, D-DE
In a statement Wednesday, Coons said:
"I have said repeatedly today that Donald Trump should resign immediately. If he refuses, then we must find ways to safeguard our democracy for the next 14 days and remove him from office. It’s not enough to simply ‘turn the temperature down.’"
Rep. Andy Kim, D-NJ
Kim says he supports removing the president from office.
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-NJ
NBC10's Joe Brandt and Jenna Miele contributed to this report.
