Trump Finally Faces Reality, Amid Talks About Early Removal
With 12 days to go in his term, President Donald Trump has finally bowed to reality amid a growing speech about trying to oust him early, acknowledging that he will leave peacefully after Congress affirmed his defeat.
Trump launched a White House video on Thursday condemning the violence carried out in his name a day earlier on Capitol Hill. Then, for the first time on camera, he admitted that his presidency would end soon, although he refused to mention President-elect Joe Biden by his name or explicitly state that he had lost.
"A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20," Trump said in the video. ‘My focus now is on ensuring a smooth, orderly and smooth energy transition. This moment demands healing and reconciliation. '
The address, which seemed designed to prevent talk of an early forced eviction, came at the end of a day when the cornered president remained out of sight at the White House. Silenced on some of his favorite Internet communication lines, he watched the resignations of several of his top aides, including two cabinet secretaries.
And as officials examined the aftermath of the siege of the US Capitol by the pro-Trump mob, there was growing discussion about whether to impeach him a second time or invoke the 25th Amendment to kick him out of the Oval Office.
The invasion of the Capitol building, a powerful symbol of the nation's democracy, shook Republicans and Democrats alike. They struggled with the best way to contain the urges of a president who is deemed too dangerous to control his own social media accounts, but who remains the commander-in-chief of the world's largest army.
"I'm not worried about the next election, I'm worried about spending the next 14 days," said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of Trump's staunchest allies. She condemned the president's role in Wednesday's riots, saying: "If something else happens, all options will be on the table."
The Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, declared that "the president of the United States incited an armed insurrection against the United States." She called him "a very dangerous person who should not continue in office. This is urgent, an emergency of the greatest magnitude. '
Neither option to impeach Trump seemed likely, with little time in his mandate to draft the necessary cabinet members to invoke the amendment or organize the hearings and trial required for impeachment. But the fact that dramatic options were even a topic of discussion in Washington's halls of power served as a warning to Trump.
Fears of what a desperate president might do in his final days spread throughout the nation's capital and beyond, including speculation that Trump might incite more violence, make rash appointments, issue ill-conceived pardons, even for himself. and your family, or even trigger a destabilization. international incident.
The president's video on Thursday, posted upon his return to Twitter after his account was restored, was a total reversal of the one he posted just 24 hours earlier in which he told the violent mob: ‘We love you. You are very special'. His refusal to condemn the violence unleashed a storm of criticism and, in the new video, he finally denounced the "anarchy and chaos" of the protesters.
The advisers said the video was also aimed at curbing the mass exodus of employees and avoiding potential legal problems for Trump once he leaves office; White House attorney Pat Cipollone has repeatedly warned the president that he could be held responsible for inciting violence on Wednesday.
As for his feelings on leaving office, Trump told the nation that "serving as his president has been the honor of my life" as he hinted at a return to the public arena. He told his followers that "our incredible journey is just beginning."
Just a day earlier, Trump unleashed destructive forces on Capitol Hill with his baseless claims of voter fraud at a rally that led to his supporters disrupting Congressional certification of Biden's victory. Following the assault on the Capitol and the eventual late-morning certification of Biden's victory by members of Congress, Trump issued a statement acknowledging that he would comply with a peaceful transfer of power on January 20.
The statement was posted by an aide and did not originate from the president's own Twitter account, which has 88 million followers and for four years has been wielded as a political weapon that dictates politics and sows division and conspiracy.
Trump was unable to tweet it himself because, for the first time, the social media platform suspended his account, claiming that the president had violated his service rules by inciting violence. Facebook adopted a broader ban, saying that Trump's account would be offline until after Biden's inauguration.
Deprived of that social media soul, Trump remained quiet and settled in the executive mansion until Thursday night. But all around him, the loyalists headed for the exits, their exits, which would take place in two weeks anyway, moved to protest the president's handling of the unrest.
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao became the first cabinet member to resign. Chao, married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, one of the lawmakers caught on Capitol Hill Wednesday, said in a message to staff that the attack 'has deeply concerned me in a way that I just can't put aside. '.
She was followed by Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. In her resignation letter Thursday, DeVos blamed Trump for inflaming tensions in the violent assault on the nation's seat of democracy. "There is no question of the impact her rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the turning point for me," she wrote.
Others who resigned in the wake of the unrest: Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger; Ryan Tully, senior director for European and Russian affairs at the National Security Council; and First Lady Melania Trump's chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary.
Mick Mulvaney, Trump's former chief of staff turned special envoy to Northern Ireland, told CNBC that he had called Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ‘to let him know he was resigning. … I can not do it. I can not stay'.
Mulvaney said others who work for Trump had decided to stay in his positions in an effort to provide some kind of barrier for the president during his final days in office.
"Those who choose to stay, and I have talked to some of them, choose to stay because they are concerned that the president might put someone worse," Mulvaney said.
Mulvaney's predecessor as Chief of Staff, retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, told CNN that 'I think the Cabinet should meet and have a discussion' on Section 4 of Amendment 25, which allows for the forced removal of Trump by his own cabinet.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer joined Pelosi in declaring that Trump "should not hold office another day" and urged Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to act. But Chao's departure may cripple nascent efforts to invoke the amendment.
Staff-level discussions on the matter took place in multiple departments and even parts of the White House, according to two people briefed on the talks. But no cabinet member has publicly expressed support for the move, which would make Pence the interim president, though several were believed to be sympathetic to the idea, believing Trump to be too volatile in his final days in office.
In the west wing, the shocked aides were packing up, acting on a delayed directive to begin leaving their posts before the arrival of Biden's team. The slowdown before now was due to Trump's determined focus on defeating him since Election Day at the expense of the other responsibilities of his office.
Most obviously, that included fighting the coronavirus that is killing record numbers of Americans every day.
Few attendees had any idea of the president's plans, and some wondered if Trump would remain largely out of sight until he left the White House. But the president has asked his aides to explore a possible farewell trip to the southern border next week as a means to highlight his immigration policies.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany read a short statement Thursday in which she stated that the siege of the Capitol was "appalling, reprehensible and antithetical to the American way."
But her words carried little weight. Trump has long made it clear that only he speaks for his presidency.
