Capitol, President Donald Trump and a dwindling circle of advisers plan a defiant final week in office, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump is confident Vice President Mike Pence and members of his cabinet won’t attempt to remove him under the 25th Amendment, the people said. One adviser called Democratic consideration of impeachment a political gift to Trump.
Border Wall
In sum, it’s a last-ditch attempt to rehabilitate Trump’s legacy after his supporters stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, resulting in five deaths including that of a Capitol Police officer. Trump has given no indication that he’s considering resigning, as many Democrats and some Republicans have demanded. A small group of House Republicans wrote to Joe Biden on Saturday, pleading with him to persuade Speaker Nancy Pelosi to back off impeachment as an olive branch in the interest of national unity. Congressional Democrats are furious about the Capitol riot and are determined to hold the president accountable.
Some Republicans have said his actions merit impeachment, including Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. Federal prosecutors also haven’t ruled out charging Trump, among many others, for his role in the assault on the Capitol, while pledging that the ongoing investigation will not be politically targeted. Some 57% of Americans want the president removed immediately, a Reuters/Ipsos poll published Friday found, while nearly 70% disapprove of Trump’s actions leading up to the Capitol riot. Talk of impeachment or removal from office would make Trump a martyr to his base, one person said.
If the vice president led an effort to remove him, it would only reinforce Trump’s declarations that a «deep state» of government bureaucrats has long been bent on opposing him, another said.
Base Galvanized
Between the impeachment movement and Trump’s censorship by social media, the president and his advisers believe his supporters are galvanized. Trump feels impeachment could have a boomerang effect on Democrats, one person said, while another dismissed it as the latest Democratic witch hunt. The president has long demanded that Congress revoke Section 230, a liability waiver social media companies depend upon to allow relatively unfettered speech on their platforms. White House counsel Pat Cipollone won’t be involved, after leading Trump’s defense during his first impeachment a year ago, in part because his job ends with Biden’s inauguration, one person familiar with the matter said.
Neither did Alan Dershowitz, professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, or Jay Sekulow, an outside attorney, who both represented Trump at his first impeachment trial.
Source: Jennifer Jacobs, Mario Parker, and Josh Wingrove | Bloomberg
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