The TAKE with Rick Klein

It might be that the very divisions President Donald Trump has stoked save him from being removed from office early.

It may also be that forces beyond his control now contribute to his ultimate and final undoing.

In the flurry of recriminations from Wednesday’s assault on the Capitol, the question has shifted from whether Trump would leave office to when and exactly how it all goes down. The president will almost certainly be impeached again by the House early this week, as official Washington realizes anew how bad last week was, and how bad things might get over the next nine days and beyond.

At stake are final judgments for history on Trump, including the possibility of disqualification from running for office again. The decisions ahead for lawmakers matter greatly for Trump and the future of the GOP, and also for internal Democratic politics and the agenda President-elect Joe Biden hopes to enact.

The strongest argument Republicans are now offering against impeachment doesn’t try to defend Trump’s actions or even argue that he’s fit to stay in office through Jan. 20.

Instead, it’s an argument that the cause of national unity is best-served by waiting Trump out – and hoping that no further political violence erupts in Washington, state capitals and even lawmakers’ homes.

Trump has barely cared about his legacy in any traditional sense, and this week’s White House attempts to remind people of his accomplishments aren’t likely to change things.

Last week left indelible marks on his permanent record. Actions in the coming days could not only influence how he’s remembered, but also how the country comes through a turbulent and troublesome period.

The RUNDOWN with MaryAlice Parks

It’s hard to imagine Republican lawmakers are not thinking about their own legacies, too.

It’s one thing for history books to write about a president who perpetuated a dangerous lie for weeks, and then, in the final days of his term, egged on a violent mob to delay the transfer of power. It’s another thing completely for history books to also write about sitting lawmakers who, perhaps, did little in response.

“If we allow insurrection against the United States with impunity, with no accountability, we are inviting it to happen again,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argued to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” Sunday.

“If a foreign head of state, if another head of state, came in and ordered an attack on the United States Congress, would we say that that should not be prosecuted?” she went on.

In reality, if that were the case, Americans know it would have likely started a war.

While unsure about the merits of impeachment himself, Republican counterpart Rep. Adam Kinzinger agreed that leaders in Washington should respond in some way.

“It was an executive branch attack on the legislative branch, one of the worst days in American history,” he said on the show.

Will the party that ran on “law and order” look hold a president from its party accountable now?

The TIP with Quinn Scanlan

While it’s still unclear when an impeachment trial would come before the U.S. Senate, if there is a round two, it’s likely the Democrats will want their newest members-elect — Georgia’s Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock — sworn in before it happens. The pressure is already on to certify the runoff election results quickly, as the Peach State is currently one senator down following former Sen. David Perdue’s term expiring at noon on Jan. 3. Late last week, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told CNN he intended to certify the statewide results before Inauguration Day, saying, “We will get that done as soon as we can.”

Raffensperger must certify the election by Jan. 22 — two days after Biden’s inauguration — and Gov. Brian Kemp must issue certificates of election to Ossoff and Warnock within 24 hours of the secretary certifying. The secretary, however, is unable to do his part of the process until all of Georgia’s 159 counties certify their respective election results. So far, only 40 have done so, but the county-level certification deadline isn’t until Friday.

Because every county was tasked with conducting a hand count audit of all votes cast in the presidential election, Raffensperger didn’t certify the general election — the first time — until the Nov. 20 deadline. While the counties aren’t required to do another audit, Bartow County, where the Republican candidates captured 75% of the vote, is starting a voluntary audit on Tuesday.

Election workers will recount approximately 43,000 ballots by hand, not because the county’s election division thinks there was an issue with the machine count, but in hopes of promoting “public confidence in the accuracy of this and future elections.” While it is an undertaking, the county expects to finish by Wednesday, but unexpected issues could disrupt that timeline — as they could with any county working towards certification.

The attending physician to members of the U.S. Congress has advised lawmakers to get tested for COVID-19 due to possible exposure during the siege on the Capitol.

The potential exposure may have occurred when several members of the House and their staffers were in “protective isolation” in a large committee space for several hours with an individual who was infected with the virus, Dr. Brian P. Monahan wrote in a memo to lawmakers and staff Sunday.

Monahan reminded Capitol staff to continue wearing masks and practicing social distancing and recommended they obtain a COVID-19 test next week.

The riot on Capitol Hill could end up being a superspreader event, experts told ABC News.

However, public health officials will not know for weeks how many new COVID-19 cases are linked to the riot.

Thousands of pro-Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building Wednesday to protest the certification of President-elect Joe Biden by Congress.

Many of the rioters came directly from President Donald Trump’s “Save America” rally, held near the White House, where the president incited his followers to march to the Capitol.

As many schools across the country remain closed for in-person learning, some have begun vaccinating educators.

While students, parents and educators all have had to juggle uncertainty surrounding pandemic learning — finding child care, ensuring internet access for virtual learning, adjusting to socially distanced classrooms — the pandemic has shown an even harsher light on systemic disparities.

In Tennessee, officials announced last month that school and child care staff would be eligible for the vaccine after it’s given to health care workers and the residents and staff of long-term care facilities. And according to the Tennessee Department of Health’s website, a number of counties have moved into that phase — students can get back into classrooms and their parents back to work.

“We are very pleased to see that the access to the vaccine will be made available to educators earlier rather than later,” said Beth Brown, president of the Tennessee Education Association. “We know that it’s going to be a critical part of getting life back to normal.”

Seventh grade social studies teacher Joe Crabtree, who, like many during the pandemic, hasn’t seen his family in a year, teaches at Liberty Bell Middle School in Johnson City, Tennessee, which is planning to return to a hybrid schedule on Monday.

Crabtree told ABC News he received his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine last week.

“It felt like for the first time in nine months, I can, I can just breathe,” he said. “I know I can still get [COVID-19]. But I’ve got a much less chance of getting it now.”

Crabtree said he’s hopeful to achieve a greater sense of normalcy during the school year.

“I’m realistic. I’m a middle school educator — germs are everywhere,” Crabtree said. “I don’t want to run the risk of, you know, exposing this to my family. And so many people here, we’ve had to make a decision between our career and our family.

Teachers in Utah, Virginia and Connecticut have been told they’re next in line and could start getting vaccines or registering for appointments over the next week. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announced on Friday teachers would be eligible starting Monday.

“We are encouraging districts to prioritize those teachers and front-line staff by age and comorbidities,” Cox added.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam tweeted on Friday “that 11 health districts will begin vaccinating people in Group 1B starting the week of January 11,” also noting on that this includes teachers.

Teachers in Oregon and Colorado are expecting to get vaccines next month. In Cherry Creek, Colorado, a handful of school nurses received them last week. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has asked local health departments statewide to prepare for administration to teachers and other front-line workers on Feb. 28.

“I think we’ve treated teachers as front-line workers in many moments throughout these past few months, and it would be, in my mind, a grave mistake and a disservice to their dedication to not include them and actually prioritize them as we move forward,” Connecticut state Sen. Will Haskell told ABC News in a phone interview. “I’ve talked to a lot of teachers who are really excited, largely because, of course, they’re concerned about their own health and safety, and because they’re really eager to continue serving their students.

Amid tense debate over whether fully returning to school is safe, it can’t realistically happen without doing more to ensure teachers’ safety.

“I think that nobody wants to be back, in-person instruction, more than more than educators do,” said John Larson, president of Oregon’s statewide teacher’s union, the Oregon Education Association. “It’s what they’ve dedicated their lives to — it’s just that it needs to be safe. And the vaccine would go a long way towards helping people feel that they’re safe in doing their job.”

While leaders in other states may feel pressured to follow suit, questions remain over whether other school employees also soon will be vaccinated.

In Oregon, since Gov. Kate Brown announced that educators would be among the next group to receive vaccines, and that schools should try to reopen by Feb. 15, Larson has watched what was once an organized, statewide plan split into a different plan for each of the state’s 195 school districts.

Larson said he hasn’t heard anything that would support the state’s timeline for getting teachers vaccinated in time to return to the classroom. Instead, he said he’s heard a mixed bag of dates from various districts, including some that have told him they’re getting vaccinated in the next few weeks while others said they may not see a vaccine until July.

“Even if they know what category they’re in and they know what dates they’re going to be, nobody has been told how they’re going to be administering it,” he said, adding that some rural districts are at least an hour away from the nearest hospital. “We just haven’t seen any kind of a plan of how they’re going to distribute the vaccine.”

Barnett was charged with entering a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and stealing public property.

“The shocking images of Mr. Barnett with his boots up on a desk in the Speaker of the House’s office on Wednesday was repulsive,” said Jeffrey A. Rosen, acting attorney general of the United States.

Loeb said when he encountered rioters, they wanted to have their picture taken and would often pose for photographers like himself.

“They were taking lots of selfies of themselves. You know, they just sort of seemed like happy to be there, sort of surprised that they were there, I would guess,” said Loeb.

Recently elected West Virginia state Republican lawmaker Derrick Evans was also charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol Grounds after he allegedly recorded himself in a video entering the Capitol.

Evans allegedly streamed a live video to his Facebook page of him “joining and encouraging a crowd unlawfully entering the U.S. Capitol,” according to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

The office alleges that the video shows Evans entering the U.S. Capitol and shouting, “We’re in, we’re in! Derrick Evans is in the Capitol!”

On Saturday, Evans resigned from the West Virginia House of Delegates, effective immediately.

“The past few days have certainly been a difficult time for my family, colleagues and myself, so I feel it’s best at this point to resign my seat in the House and focus on my personal situation and those I love,” Evans said in a statement. “I take full responsibility for my actions, and deeply regret any hurt, pain or embarrassment I may have caused my family, friends, constituents and fellow West Virginians.”

Several others also face charges.

On Wednesday, Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said that there were Molotov cocktails found in the cooler of a truck. On Friday, Lonnie Coffman was arrested for allegedly possessing them.

While K-9 units were searching for explosives at the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee, they got a hit on what allegedly was Coffman’s truck — and upon approaching the truck they saw the handle of a handgun that was ultimately recovered from the passenger seat, according to a complaint.

Officers also allegedly recovered 11 mason jars containing an unknown liquid with a golf tee on the top of each jar, cloth rags and lighters.

“Upon finding these materials, bomb technicians observed that the items appeared to be consistent with components for an explosive or incendiary device known as a ‘Molotov Cocktail,” the complaint says.

Coffman was sitting in the passenger seat of someone else’s car and asked officers whether the bombs from the RNC and DNC were cleared, according to the complaint.

Officers then asked his name and he said it was Lonnie. They then detained him because his matched the name of the owner of the truck. After further questioning he was arrested when they found a handgun and, in his pocket, the keys to the truck that contained the alleged Molotov cocktails. It is alleged that Coffman’s vehicle contained 11 Molotov cocktails and firearms.

Coffman is not believed to be a suspect in the placement of pipe bombs outside the RNC and DNC, the complaint says. But he was charged Friday with possession of an unregistered firearm (destructive device) and carrying a pistol without a license

Christopher Michael Alberts was one of the protesters who stormed the Capitol and was “slow in responding to orders to leave the premises,” according to a complaint. That is when a Capitol Police quoted in the complaint said he noticed Alberts had a handgun on his hip and was wearing a bulletproof vest and a backpack. Alberts tried to flee when officers noticed his weapon, but officers detained him quickly, according to the complaint.

“A black Taurus G2C 9mm was recovered from D-1’s right hip. Additionally, a separate magazine was located on D-1’s left hip. Both the gun and the spare magazine were in held in two separate holsters. The handgun had one round in the chamber with a twelve round capacity magazine filled with twelve rounds; the spare magazine also had a twelve round capacity and was filled with twelve rounds. MPD Officers also seized a gas-mask from the defendant’s person as well as the defendant’s backpack containing a pocketknife, one packaged military meal-ready to eat (MRE), and one first-aid medical kit,” the complaint says.

Alberts was charged with carrying a firearm on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.

Mark Leffingwell was in the U.S. Capitol building and attempted to push past the officers who secured a barrier, according to his complaint.

“When he was deterred from advancing further into the building, Leffingwell punched me repeatedly with a closed fist. I was struck in the helmet that I was wearing and in the chest,” an officer said in the complaint.

The complaint also adds that he apologized to the officer he struck, but was still arrested.

Leffingwell was charged Thursday with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, assault on a federal law enforcement officer, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

Joshua Pruitt was arrested for not complying with the Washington, D.C., mayor’s 6 p.m. curfew, according to his complaint.

While at the processing center, court documents say, a Metropolitan Police Department investigator noticed his picture matched one on The Washington Post website and identified him as someone who was allegedly in the Capitol.

When officers asked Pruitt if it was him in the Capitol, he said said it was and that he was only attempting to de-escalate the situation. He was charged Thursday with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority.

In December, while a signature match audit was ongoing in one Georgia county, President Donald Trump phoned a chief investigator in Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office asking the official to “find the fraud” and telling this person they would be a “national hero” for it, an individual familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.

The Washington Post was first to report on the lengthy phone call, which occurred before Trump’s stunning, hourlong phone conversation with Raffensperger in which the president ranted about baseless allegations of election fraud and pressured Georgia’s top elections official to “find” enough votes to deliver him a win in the Peach State.

That call, which took place on Jan. 2, is noted in the draft article of impeachment against the president that Democrats could introduce as early as Monday.

Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs confirmed the call between Trump and the elections investigator took place without offering details, saying only: “The secretary and the secretary of state’s office can confirm that the call did happen.”

The White House declined to comment to ABC News.

The source familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the call, told ABC News that the president’s call to the elections investigator occurred the day after White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows traveled to Cobb County, Georgia, attempting to observe the signature match audit taking place there. The source asked that investigator remain unnamed because of the current threat environment election officials are facing.

Meadows was in the county on Dec. 22, ABC News previously reported. Fuchs said at the time that she did not allow Meadows to enter the room where investigators from Raffensperger’s office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation were doing the audit, but she did allow him to stand in the doorway.

Fuchs said that the president’s chief of staff asked her “basic questions about the process,” and also wanted to know if they were doing a statewide signature audit. Raffensperger had previously announced his office partnered with the University of Georgia to conduct a statewide signature audit study, which Fuchs said she told Meadows.

According to Fuchs, Meadows told her they had “a good meeting” and that whatever information she was able to provide to him, he would report back to Trump.

Raffensperger announced on Dec. 14 that Cobb County would conduct a signature audit, saying there were specific and credible allegations that signature matching wasn’t done properly by election officials in the June primary.

A total of 15,118 absentee ballot oath envelopes, which is where voters sign, were randomly selected to be audited.

The audit was completed on Dec. 29, and investigators only found two ballots that should not have been accepted as they were. In Georgia, absentee by mail voters have the opportunity to cure a deficient absentee ballot, and the GBI said that these ballots should have gone through that process.

But the investigators also determined that neither of these ballots were fraudulently cast.

“I would also note for the record as well that during the course of the audit, there were no fraudulent absentee ballots identified in the process,” GBI Director Vic Reynolds said in a press conference on Dec. 30.

In one instance, the voter’s spouse signed the oath envelope on the voter’s behalf; in the other, the voter signed the oath envelope in the wrong place.

In both cases, the audit team was able to contact both voters and confirm they had filled out their respective ballots themselves, Reynolds said.

Trump and allies, including the Georgia Republican Party chairman, repeatedly claimed that the signature rejection rate in Georgia for the general election was suspiciously lower than past elections, pointing to this as evidence of election fraud. But Raffensperger and other officials in his office have said this isn’t true, and released figures to refute those claims.

Gabriel Sterling, the voting system implementation manager in Raffensperger’s office, has previously said that those making incorrect assertions about signatures rejection rates are comparing “apples and oranges” because they are comparing the signature rejection rate to the full rejection rates from previous elections. The entire rejection rate includes absentee ballots that are received after the deadline, and Sterling said late arriving ballots account for the “vast majority” of rejected absentee ballots

At least two Seattle police officers have been placed on leave and are being investigated for their alleged involvement in the U.S. Capitol protests.

The Seattle Police Department released a statement Friday night saying that it was made aware Friday of the officers’ involvement in the Jan. 6 siege and is now taking the appropriate measures.

“The Department fully supports all lawful expressions of First Amendment freedom of speech, but the violent mob and events that unfolded at the U.S. Capitol were unlawful and resulted in the death of another police officer,” Chief Adrian Diaz said in the statement, referring to Brian Sicknick, who died of injuries he sustained during the attack.

Diaz said the case is now being reviewed by the Office of Police Accountability.

“The OPA will investigate whether any SPD policies were violated and if any potential illegal activities need to be referred for criminal investigation,” he said. “If any SPD officers were directly involved in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, I will immediately terminate them. While OPA investigates, these officers have been placed on administrative leave.”

This seems to be the first report of out-of-state law enforcement officials being involved in the violent pro-Trump protests.

The FBI is currently working to identify those involved and has already made various arrests.

In a statement late Friday, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Steven M. D’Antuono said in a press call, “Just because you’ve left the D.C. region, you can still expect a knock on the door if we find out that you were part of criminal activity inside the Capitol. Bottom line—the FBI is not sparing any resources in this investigation.”

It appears President Donald Trump will have to find a new preferred platform to share his views with the world.

Twitter announced Friday evening that it had permanently suspended Trump.

“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter wrote in a statement.

Trump’s final tweet said he would not be attending the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.

Hashtags for “TrumpBanned” and “Thank you Twitter” quickly rose to the top of the social media site in the wake of the permanent suspension

Hours after his suspension, Trump released a statement criticizing the ban, and teasing a possible new platform.

“I predicted this would happen,” he wrote in part. “We have been negotiating with various other sites, and will have a big announcement soon, while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future. We will not be SILENCED!”

“Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH. They are all about promoting a Radical Left platform where some of the most vicious people in the world are allowed to speak freely,” he added.

Trump had attempted to post the same statement on Twitter, using the official @POTUS account, but the platform deleted the thread, saying users who are banned cannot post from other accounts. The @POTUS account, rarely used by Trump himself over the past four years, will be transferred over to the Biden administration following his inauguration.

The blog post from Twitter announcing the ban cited the events of Wednesday’s raid on the U.S. Capitol as a reason for the suspension. Trump’s account had been temporarily suspended in the wake of the rioting, but warned the president another violation of its terms of service would result in a permanent ban.

“In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action,” the company wrote.

Five people died in the rioting at the Capitol on Wednesday, including one police officer, just hours after Trump held a rally and urged his supporters to march to the Capitol.

“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them,” he said at the rally. “Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”

Rioters ended up pushing past police and ransacking legislative offices, spraying graffiti on the walls and stealing property. In a video message posted to Twitter hours later, he called on the rioters to leave the Capitol, but also said, “We love you.”

Since his election loss in November 2020, the president has constantly used the social media platform to baselessly claim the election was rigged or rampant with fraud. Twitter began labeling his tweets in the run-up to the election to say some of the information was disputed. However, they were not taken down.

Facebook suspended Trump’s account indefinitely on Thursday, with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg writing in a post that “the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”

Reddit on Friday removed the subreddit r/donaldtrump from its platform, with a spokesperson saying, “Reddit’s site-wide policies prohibit content that promotes hate, or encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence against groups of people or individuals.”

Twitter has defended keeping Trump’s account active in the past based on politicians and world leaders providing information in the public interest — even if they go against Twitter policy for average users. But Twitter said Thursday they felt that was no longer the case with Trump.

“Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly,” Twitter wrote. “It is built on a principle that the people have a right to hold power to account in the open.”

The statement continued, “However, we made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above our rules entirely and cannot use Twitter to incite violence, among other things. We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement.”

A number of Trump associates were banned from Twitter earlier in the day Friday. Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, whom the president pardoned late last year for lying to the FBI during the Russia investigation, was banned, as well as lawyer Sidney Powell, who briefly served on Trump’s legal team following the election.

Trump has used Twitter as his main outlet for disseminating information for a decade. His posts during his presidency, sent from the same personal account he’s used since March 2009, often generated headlines themselves

Calls for Twitter to ban Trump, while increasing in the months since Election Day, are nothing new. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris repeatedly said while she was running for president that he should be banned.

She wrote a letter to CEO Jack Dorsey in October 2019, citing a handful of tweets she said broke the platform’s policy. Twitter pointed to its public interest policy and said they did not plan to ban his account.

He had approximately 79.5 million followers on Twitter at the time of his removal — the eighth-most followed account on the platform. Former President Barack Obama has the most followers at over 127 million, followed by Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Cristiano Ronaldo, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga.

First lady Melania Trump made her first comments on Wednesday’s deadly Capitol siege, calling for national unity yet refusing to take any responsibility for her husband’s role in the deadly riot.

Rather, she cast herself as a victim.

“I am disappointed and disheartened with what happened last week,” she wrote in the statement, posted on the White House website Monday morning. “I find it shameful that surrounding these tragic events there has been salacious gossip, unwarranted personal attacks, and false misleading accusations on me — from people who are looking to be relevant and have an agenda.

“This time is solely about healing our country and its citizens. It should not be used for personal gain,” Trump said.

She did not explain what “gossip” she was referring to.

The first lady expressed her condolences for a Capitol Hill officer who died in the attack, which her husband, President Donald Trump, has not done. Before naming the officer — and another Capitol Hill officer who died over the weekend — she named four Trump supporters who died on Wednesday, including a woman who was shot inside the Capitol building.

“My heart goes out to: Air Force Veteran, Ashli Babbit, Benjamin Philips, Kevin Greeson, Rosanne Boyland, and Capitol Police Officers, Brian Sicknick and Howard Liebengood,” Melania Trump said. “I pray for their families comfort and strength during this difficult time.”

In addition to the deaths of the four Trump supporters, Officer Sicknick was injured while engaging with protesters at the Capitol and died one day later from his injuries, according to Capitol Police. Officer Liebengood, who responded to the rioting, died on Saturday. Capitol Police have not released a cause of death.

Melania Trump did not take any responsibility for her words — or those of the president — in the months leading up to the siege. She had backed her husband’s effort to overturn the election, tweeting support in November.

Melania Trump said she’s “proud of our freedom to express our viewpoints without persecution” but “would like to call on the citizens of this country to take a moment, pause, and look at things from all perspectives.

“I absolutely condemn the violence that has occurred on our Nation’s Capitol,” she said.

“I implore people to stop the violence, never make assumptions based on the color of a person’s skin or use differing political ideologies as a basis for aggression and viciousness. We must listen to one another, focus on what unites us, and rise above what divides us,” she said.

The first lady’s only mention of the election was to say it’s “inspiring to see that so many have found a passion and enthusiasm in participating in an election, but we must not allow that passion to turn to violence. Our path forward is to come together, find our commonalities, and be the kind and strong people that I know we are.”

She ended by asking “for healing, grace, understanding, and peace for our great Nation.”

Democrats are taking steps this week in the House to remove the president, beginning with a call for Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25 Amendment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to Democrats on Sunday.

The resolution would call on Pence “to immediately use his powers under section 4 of the 25th Amendment to convene and mobilize the principal officers of the executive departments in the Cabinet to declare what is obvious to a horrified Nation: That the President is unable to successfully discharge the duties and powers of his office.”