Trump targeted the lawmakers who are pushing for his ouster, saying that it’s “a really terrible thing that they’re doing.”
By LISA MASCARO, ZEKE MILLER and MARY CLARE JALONICK WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House pressed swiftly forward Tuesday toward impeachment or other steps to forcibly remove President Donald Trump from office, even as Trump blamed Democratic foes and not himself for last week’s deadly attack on the Capitol. He targeted the lawmakers who are pushing for his ouster, saying that it’s “a really terrible thing that they’re doing.” “To continue on this path, I think it’s causing tremendous danger to our country, and it’s causing tremendous anger,” he said. He accepted no blame for the Capitol attack and said, “I want no violence.” The defeated president, in his first remarks to reporters since last week’s violence, showed no remorse for firing up the crowd ahead of the deadly invasion with comments that now are part of the impeachment charge of inciting insurrection. The president spoke as he left for Texas to survey the border wall with Mexico, taking no questions, after the most serious and deadly domestic incursion at the Capitol in the nation’s history. Impeachment ahead, the House on Tuesday will first try to convince the vice president and Cabinet to act even more quickly to remove Trump from office, warning he is a threat to democracy in the remaining days of his presidency. House lawmakers are reconvening at the Capitol for the first time since the deadly pro-Trump riot to approve a resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to declare the president unable to serve. Pence is not expected to take any such action. The House would next move swiftly to impeach Trump. “We have to be very tough and very strong right now in defending the Constitution and democracy,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., an author of both pieces of legislation, in an interview. Trump faces a single charge — “incitement of insurrection” — in the impeachment resolution that the House will begin debating Wednesday, a week before Democrat Joe Biden is set to be inaugurated, Jan.20. The unprecedented events, which could make Trump the first U.S. president to be twice impeached, are unfolding in a nation bracing for more unrest. The FBI has warned ominously of potential armed protests in Washington and many states by Trump loyalists ahead of Biden’s inauguration. In a dark foreshadowing, the Washington Monument was closed to the public and the inauguration ceremony on the west steps of the Capitol will be off limits to the public. It all added up to stunning final moments for Trump’s presidency as Democrats and a growing number of Republicans declare he is unfit for office and could do more damage after inciting a mob that violently ransacked the U.
