Jan. 12 (UPI) –The House reconvened briefly on Tuesday morning to take up Democratic efforts to remove President Donald Trump.
The chamber briefly held a pro forma session before adjourning again, ahead of a vote later Tuesday for a resolution urging Vice President Mike Pence to declare Trump unfit for office under the 25th Amendment.
The chamber will reconvene to debate the measure and participate in a floor vote late Tuesday afternoon.
If Pence does not comply with the resolution, the House will move forward with a single article of impeachment that was introduced on Monday, which charges Trump with inciting the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol last week.
House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer said the impeachment vote would be expected Wednesday, after Pence is given 24 hours to respond.
A vote on the “Raskin Resolution,” which asks Pence to convene the Trump administration Cabinet and declare that he’s “incapable of executing the duties of his office and to immediately exercise powers as acting president,” is expected Tuesday.
Pence has not indicated publicly that he will try to have Trump removed under the amendment.
The article of impeachment against Trump already has enough support in the chamber to pass.
Hoyer said that, once passed in the House, the article of impeachment should be transmitted immediately to the Senate for trial — which would be Trump’s second. He was impeached by the House and acquitted in the Senate a year ago on charges of abusing power and obstructing Congress related to conduct with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
No American president has ever been impeached twice.
Some Democrats have raised the idea of delaying the trial in the Senate, which will soon be under Democratic control, for 100 days to allow the chamber to concentrate on passing President-elect Joe Biden‘s early legislative agenda and confirming his Cabinet choices.
Biden said Monday it’s possible the Senate could accomplish both immediately.
“The question is whether or not, for example, if the House moves forward … with the impeachment and sends it over to the Senate, whether or not we can bifurcate this,” he told reporters in Delaware.
Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York said a trial could be held without disrupting Biden’s agenda.
“We’re going to have to do several things at once, but we’ve got to move the agenda as well,” he told The Buffalo News. “Yes, we’ve got to do both.”
