US President Donald Trump has less than two weeks left in office, but the Senate’s top Democrat has called for his presidential powers to be removed immediately after his supporters violently stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday.
“What happened at the US Capitol yesterday was an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president. This president should not hold office one day longer,” Senator Chuck Schumer said in a statement.
He added that Mike Pence should invoke the 25th Amendment, which allows for a transfer of power from the president to the vice-president, either temporarily or permanently.
“If the vice-president and the cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president,” he said.
Democrats of the House Judiciary Committee have also written a letter to Vice-President Pence urging him to act to remove Donald Trump from office, saying he had stoked an act of insurrection and “sought to undermine our democracy”.
The 25th Amendment allows the vice-president to become acting president when a president is unable to continue his duties, if for example, he or she becomes incapacitated due to a physical or mental illness.
The part of the amendment being discussed is section four, which allows the vice-president and a majority of the cabinet to declare President Trump unable to perform his duties.
They would need to sign a letter to the speakers of the Houses of Representatives and the Senate declaring the president is unfit to govern or incapable “of discharging the powers and duties of his office”. At this point, Vice-President Mike Pence would automatically take over.
The president is given the chance to offer a written response, and if he contests the finding, then it falls on Congress to decide. Any vote in the Senate and House of Representatives ordering the president’s removal requires a two-thirds majority.
Until the issue is resolved, the vice-president would act as president.
Around the same time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced legislation based on the 25th Amendment that created a commission to review a president’s fitness for office.
There have been calls for President Trump to be impeached for a second time.
Minnesota Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar announced she was drawing up articles of impeachment against him, with a growing number of fellow Democrats voicing their support.
Donald Trump has already been impeached once – by the Democrat-led House in December 2019 over allegations he improperly sought help from Ukraine to boost his chances of re-election.
He faced two charges – abuse of power and the obstruction of Congress – but was later acquitted by the Republican-led Senate.
He is only the third US president in history to have been impeached.
To impeach means to bring charges in Congress that will form the basis for a trial.
The US constitution states a president “shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanours”.
It is a political process, rather than a criminal one.
It happens in two stages – articles are brought to the House of Representatives where, if passed, they proceed to the Senate for a trial.
But here, a two-thirds vote is necessary for a president’s removal – and this milestone has never been reached in US history.
If President Trump were replaced through the impeachment process, Vice-President Mike Pence would move into the Oval Office.
No president has ever been impeached twice during his time in office.
Questions remain as to whether there would be enough time to impeach Donald Trump before his term ends on 20 January, when President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated.
BBC News
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Apenas faltan 13 días para que Donald Trump abandone oficialmente la Casa Blanca y arranque la legislatura del demócrata Joe Biden, cuya victoria electoral fue ratificada por el Congreso de Estados Unidos este jueves.
Pero tras el violento asalto al Capitolio por parte de seguidores de Trump, prolongado durante horas y que dejó cuatro muertos, los demócratas del Comité Judicial de la Cámara de Representantes están pidiendo que se destituyan los poderes del presidente.
Escribieron una carta al vicepresidente Mike Pence en la que le urgían a actuar y sacar a Trump de la presidencia, alegando que había cometido un acto de insurrección y “buscaba socavar” la democracia.
Para destituir al presidente de Estados Unidos hay dos mecanismos: el llamado juicio político -impeachment- o la enmienda número 25 de la Constitución, aseguran expertos.
Sin embargo, ambas vías pueden resultar difíciles e improbables de aplicar dado el poco margen de tiempo que le queda a Trump al mando.
Tras los violentos acontecimientos del miércoles, Trump ha asegurado que la transición de poder se ejecutará de forma “ordenada”, pero que está en desacuerdo con el resultado de las elecciones presidenciales del pasado 3 de noviembre, las que califica como fraudulentas a pesar de que el Departamento de Justicia estadounidense lo haya descartado.
Enmienda 25
Dicha enmienda recogida por la Constitución permite la transferencia de poder desde la presidencia a la vicepresidencia ya sea de forma temporal o permanente.
Convierte al vicepresidente en presidente si este se muestra incapaz de continuar con sus responsabilidades, por ejemplo, si sufre una enfermedad física o mental.
La sección número 4 de dicha enmienda permite al vicepresidente y la mayoría del gabinete declarar al mandatario incapaz de desempeñar su deber en el cargo.
Para ello necesitarían firmar y remitir una carta a los presidentes de la Cámara de Representantes y el Senado y declarar al presidente como no apto para gobernar o incapaz de desempeñar sus poderes y deberes.
De ser así, el vicepresidente Mike Pence asumiría automáticamente el poder hasta el próximo 20 de enero, cuando empezaría el mandato de Biden.
El presidente tiene la oportunidad de ofrecer una respuesta por escrito, y si impugna el hallazgo, entonces le corresponde al Congreso decidir. Cualquier voto en el Senado y la Cámara de Representantes que ordene la destitución del presidente requiere una mayoría de dos tercios.
Mientras se resuelve el caso, el vicepresidente actuaría como presidente.
Juicio político o ‘impeachment’
El juicio político, también conocido como impeachment, tiene lugar en el Congreso de EE.UU. con el objetivo de llevar a cabo una posible destitución del presidente.
La Constitución estadounidense establece que el presidente “debe ser destituido de su cargo si es acusado de y condenado por traición, soborno, u otros crímenes o delitos graves”.
Es un proceso político, más que penal.
BBC Mundo
