The US House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to urge Vice President Mike Pence to start the US Constitution’s 25th Amendment process of removing President Donald Trump from office, although the vice president already has said he will not do so.

To invoke the 25th Amendment, Pence and a majority of Trump’s Cabinet would need to declare that Trump is unable to perform his duties.

Pence rejected that course of action earlier Tuesday.

“I do not believe that such a course of action is in the best interest of our Nation or consistent with our Constitution,” Pence said.

With eight days remaining in Trump’s term in office, the House of Representatives was poised on Wednesday to pass an article of impeachment accusing the Republican of inciting insurrection in a speech to his followers last week before a mob of them stormed the Capitol, leaving five dead.

That would trigger a trial in the still Republican-controlled Senate, although it was unclear if enough time or political appetite remained to push Trump from office.

Trump’s iron grip on his party showed further signs of weakening as at least three Republicans, including a member of the House leadership, said they would vote for his historic second impeachment.

Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, said: “There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”

Trump “summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack” on the Capitol last Wednesday, Cheney, the daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, said in a statement, adding: “I will vote to impeach the president.”

Two other Republican House members, John Katko and Adam Kinzinger, said they would also vote for impeachment.

Their announcements came as Republican leaders in the House refrained from urging their members to vote against impeaching Trump, saying it was a matter of individual conscience.

At a meeting to set the rules for Wednesday’s impeachment vote, Democratic Representative David Cicilline told the House Rules Committee that the impeachment drive had the support of 217 lawmakers – enough to impeach Trump.

Cicilline, who helped craft the impeachment measure, said Trump “has had almost a week to do the right thing. He has refused to resign, he has failed to take responsibility, he has demonstrated no remorse.”

The New York Times reported that the Republican majority leader of the US Senate, Mitch McConnell, was said to be pleased about the Democratic impeachment push, suggesting Trump’s party was looking to move on from him after last week’s stunning attack on Congress.

McConnell believes the impeachment effort will make it easier to purge Trump from the party, the Times said.

If Trump is impeached by the House, he would have a trial in the Senate to determine his guilt. A two-thirds majority of the Senate is needed to convict him, meaning at least 17 Republicans in the 100-member chamber would have to vote for conviction.

“I don’t think you would have a hard time finding 17 Republicans to convict” with a tightly drawn article of impeachment, a former Senate Republican leadership aide told Reuters. “I think for McConnell, there’s a very strong impulse for this (the Capitol assault) not to define the party.”

In his first public appearance since last Wednesday’s riot, Trump showed no contrition for his speech, in which he repeated his false claim that President-elect Joe Biden’s victory was illegitimate. Biden will be sworn in as president on January 20.

“What I said was totally appropriate,” Trump told reporters as he left for a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border wall near Alamo, Texas, his first public foray since the assault on the Capitol.

McConnell has said no trial could begin until the chamber returns from its recess on January 19.

But Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is set to become the majority leader after two Democrats from Georgia are seated and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is sworn in, told reporters the Senate could be recalled to handle the matter.

Rather than a two-thirds vote, only a simple Senate majority is needed to disqualify Trump from future office. There is disagreement among legal experts as to whether a conviction on an impeachment charge would be needed before a disqualification vote. A different part of the Constitution, the 14th Amendment, also provides a procedure for disqualifying Trump from future office with a simple majority of both chambers.

Trump has said he plans to run again in 2024.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

US President Donald Trump denied Tuesday that his speech last week to thousands of supporters, encouraging them to march on Congress, had anything to do with the deadly violence that broke out shortly after.

“They’ve analysed my speech in my words and my final paragraph, my final sentence, and everybody to the tee just thought it was totally appropriate,” Trump told reporters before flying out for a trip to Texas.

On January 6 he told a large crowd in Washington that the presidential election was stolen and that they should march on Congress and show “strength”. The crowd broke into Congress and forced frightened lawmakers to abandon a ceremony putting the legal stamp on Democrat Joe Biden’s election win.

A Capitol police officer died from injuries suffered in the riot, and police shot a woman during the violence. Three others died in what authorities said were medical emergencies.

As rioters were still in the Capitol, Trump released a video seemingly excusing the events, saying of the rioters: “We love you. You’re very special”.

Impeachment moves causing ‘tremendous anger’

In his first remarks since the January 6 Capitol assault, Trump also blasted the US House plans to remove him from office.

Speaking to reporters as he boarded the Marine One aircraft at the White House for a trip to Texas, Trump called his scheduled impeachment in the House of Representatives on Wednesday a “continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics”.

Trump said the prospect of impeachment was causing “tremendous anger” in the nation. But he said he wants “no violence”.

With only eight days left in his one-term administration, Trump finds himself alone, shunned by former supporters and US businesses, barred by social media, and now facing a second impeachment over his instigation of a riot against Congress.

His trip to Alamo, Texas, where he will tout claims of success in building a US-Mexican border wall, is his first live public appearance since he rallied thousands of followers on the National Mall to march on Congress.

Although this is not the same Alamo as the famous fortress in another part of Texas, the trip marks something of a last stand for the Republican.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres officially declared Monday he is seeking a second five-year term at the helm of the United Nations.

Guterres, whose current term ends next Dec. 31, said in a letter to General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir that “It would be my honour to continue to serve the organization in pursuing its purposes and fulfilling its noble objectives.”

The former Portuguese prime minister and U.N. refugee chief was elected by the 193-member assembly to succeed Ban Ki-moon after a hotly contested and transparent race in October 2016 that initially included 13 candidates — seven women and six men. Guterres took office on Jan. 1, 2017.

“I am available to serve a second term as secretary-general of the United Nations, if that will be the will of member states,” Guterres said in a letter to Bozkir obtained by the Associated Press.

Several diplomats have said Guterres was waiting for the results of the U.S. presidential election and would not have sought a second term if Donald Trump won. But another diplomat familiar with his thinking said Guterres, after more than 40 years of public service, would have felt he couldn’t desert the U.N. if Trump had defeated President-elect Joe Biden who takes office on Jan. 20.

Trump pulled the United States out of the World Health Organization, the U.N.-backed 2015 Paris climate agreement and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and stopped funding the U.N. population fund and the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. Biden has said the U.S. will quickly rejoin the WHO and the climate agreement.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Guterres was responding to a letter from Bozkir on Friday asking his “intentions regarding a second mandate.”

The secretary-general spent time over the holidays speaking to his family, Dujarric said, and “I don’t think any particular elections cycle in any particular country impacted his decision.”

Dujarric said Guterres informed the five permanent members of the Security Council — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — on Friday. China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun hosted a lunch for the P5 ambassadors, as they are called, with the secretary-general on Friday, diplomats said.

The General Assembly elects the secretary-general on the recommendation of the 15-member Security Council where the five permanent members have veto power, so their support is crucial.

Guterres, 71, got his first key vote of support late Monday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson “warmly welcomed the secretary-general’s decision to run for a second term and congratulated him on a successful first term,” his office said following a virtual meeting between the two leaders.

Guterres also spoke to leaders of the U.N.’s regional groups on Friday and sent a letter to the Security Council on Monday, the U.N. spokesman said.

As for next steps, a General Assembly resolution adopted in September 2015 asks the presidents of the assembly and Security Council to “start the process of soliciting candidates for the position of secretary-general through a joint letter addressed to all member states.”

Assembly spokesman Brenden Varma said president Bozkir spoke to Tunisia’s U.N. Ambassador Tarek Ladeb, this month’s council president, on Monday and will meet with him Tuesday, among other things to discuss “the next steps in this process.”

The 2015 resolution, which was adopted by consensus, made the previously largely secretive selection of the secretary-general more open and transparent. It allowed the world body’s member states for the first time to see basic information about all candidates, including their resumes, and to meet and question them at open sessions.

Just before Christmas, a group of 25 nations from all regions called the Accountability Coherence and Transparency group wrote to the General Assembly and Security Council urging that the selection process meets “at a minimum” the 2015 standards of transparency and involvement of U.N. members.

Guterres’ election was a disappointment to women, who have never held the U.N.’s top job, and to East Europeans who have never had a secretary-general from the region. It was supposed to be next in the informal geographical rotation for U.N. chief when Guterres, a West European was elected.

Since this will be the first time an incumbent is seeking a second term following the resolution’s adoption, and it isn’t yet known whether there will be any other candidates, the next steps are unclear.

Guterres said in his reply to Bozkir: “In line with the strong interest of the General Assembly regarding transparency and inclusivity, I am ready to fully meet the expectations referred in your letter, notably with regard to the submission of a vision statement and to the participation in an informal dialogue with member states.”

The secretary-general said in the letter that he has worked to reform the United Nations “to meet the aspirations of member states, striving for the dignity and the well-being of people, while ensuring the sustainability of our planet for future generations.”

On the day of his election, Guterres pledged to be “a bridge-builder” and to promote a new “diplomacy for peace.”

But the last four years have seen the United Nations, the global bastion of multilateralism, and its leader trying to deal with an increasingly polarized world facing a pandemic, regional conflicts, a shrinking economy, growing inequality and escalating U.S.-China tensions.

(AP)

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday she would push ahead with efforts to remove President Donald Trump from office during the final days of his administration after his supporters’ violent attack on the Capitol.

Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, said there would be a resolution in the House of Representatives on Monday calling for the cabinet to remove Trump as unfit for office under the constitution’s 25th amendment.

If Vice President Mike Pence does not agree, “we will proceed with bringing impeachment legislation” to the floor of the House of Representatives, Pelosi said.

“In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both,” she said.

“As the days go by, the horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action.”

Trump was already impeached once by the Democratic-controlled House — in December 2019 for pressuring the leader of Ukraine to dig up political dirt on Joe Biden.

He was acquitted by the Republican-majority Senate.

Though time is running short, Democrats likely have the votes in the House to impeach Trump again and could even draw some Republican support for the move.

But they are unlikely to muster the two-thirds majority needed to convict Trump in the 100-member Senate and remove him from office.

Trump’s successor Joe Biden is due to be inaugurated on January 20.

Source: AFP