WASHINGTON — Congress could act quickly now that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has put a second impeachment of President Trump on the table, but that doesn’t mean it’s likely that Democrats will oust him from office before Joe Biden becomes president.
The day after pro-Trump rioters who had been egged on by the defeated president stormed the U.S. Capitol, Pelosi said Thursday that Congress could impeach Trump if Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet don’t remove him from power by invoking the 25th Amendment.
“This is urgent,” the San Francisco Democrat said at a news conference. “This is (an) emergency of the highest magnitude.”
But Biden’s inauguration is less than two weeks away, leaving little time for the House to initiate impeachment proceedings and the Senate to hold a trial before Trump will be gone from the White House anyway. Impeaching Trump the first time took more than four months, from the House authorization of an impeachment inquiry to the Senate’s acquittal in February 2020 on charges of abusing his power and obstructing justice.
And either impeachment or an invoking of the 25th Amendment, under which Pence could take power through a Cabinet declaration that Trump is unable to perform his duties, would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate — which is still in Republican control.
Only one Republican, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, voted to convict Trump last year. Although several Republican senators have joined Romney in denouncing Trump’s baseless claims to have won the November election and his whipping up of supporters at a rally Wednesday before they stormed the Capitol, none has suggested that Trump should be removed before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
Both the House and Senate have adjourned until two days before the inauguration, though lawmakers could be called back into session on short notice.
Impeachment does not have to take months. At least one lawmaker, Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, has drafted a privileged resolution for impeachment — meaning it would force an immediate vote on the floor if lawmakers were in session.
But what comes next could take time. Once the House passes impeachment articles, the Senate must hold a trial on them. While there are requirements for the trial, there is room for leadership to set the rules. And the top leader is still Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
“The laws of physics allow it,” said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who specializes in politics. “There is a physical universe in which that could happen within 13 days. It’s a political will question.”
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, said there was enough time to impeach Trump, even though most House committees haven’t been organized since the new Congress was sworn in Sunday. It would require taking an impeachment resolution directly to the House floor instead of working through committees, she said.
“I believe that it possible to do it from a House perspective,” said Lofgren, a member of the Judiciary Committee who was one of the prosecutors during Trump’s Senate trial. “The question, I think, is whether the senators are concerned enough at this point to take an action.”
She added, “This is not about affecting the next election or a political statement. This is about securing the United States from someone who seems to have lost it. ... As much as I disagree with Mike Pence, he is living in the real world of reality, and I would not have the same kind of concern at all about his stability.”
Late Thursday, Trump tried to defuse anger toward him with a video statement in which he said there would be a “smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power” Jan. 20 and said he was “outraged” by his supporters’ attack on the Capitol.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2021
As difficult as convicting Trump would be for Democrats in an impeachment trial, making a 25th Amendment ouster stick could be even harder. Assuming Trump objects, the House would have to join the Senate in voting by two-thirds to keep Pence in power.
One Republican lawmaker, Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, announced he supported such efforts. Another, Ohio Rep. Steve Stivers, said he trusted the Cabinet’s judgment on the matter.
But 138 Republicans voted late Wednesday to block Biden’s election certification in at least one state. That’s nearly a third of the House, and when Trump was impeached in 2019, not a single GOP lawmaker went along.
Pence would also have to be on board, and there’s no indication he is. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who made the same call for Trump’s removal as Pelosi on Thursday, said that he and the House speaker tried to call Pence early in the day. After they were kept on hold for more than 20 minutes, the vice president declined to get on the phone, Schumer said.
In her remarks Thursday, Pelosi said Trump was “a very dangerous person who should not continue in office. ... We are in a very difficult place in our country as long as Donald Trump sits in the White House.”
Many of California’s Democratic lawmakers also joined the call to impeach Trump or invoke the 25th Amendment. Bay Area Democrats who supported the idea included Lofgren and Reps. Mark DeSaulnier of Concord, Anna Eshoo of Palo Alto, Jared Huffman of San Rafael, Ro Khanna of Fremont, Barbara Lee of Oakland, Jackie Speier of San Mateo, Eric Swalwell of Dublin and Mike Thompson of St. Helena.
“My phone is exploding with impeach, impeach, impeach,” Pelosi said. “The president must be held accountable.”
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who is still serving in her California Senate seat, has not commented on removing Trump from office. Asked by a reporter early Thursday in the Capitol whether he should be impeached, she said, “Oy. You know what,” and then trailed off without finishing the thought.
In remarks at the announcement of Biden’s nominees to run the Justice Department, Harris called Wednesday’s events “an assault on the rule of law and it has no place in our democracy.”
While Pelosi said action by the vice president would be fastest, Congress could also move quickly if needed.
“We will review what our options are in terms of the 25th Amendment,” Pelosi said. “If (Trump) wants to be unique and be doubly impeached, that’s kind of up to him and his Cabinet.”
San Francisco Chronicle senior political writer Joe Garofoli contributed to this report.
Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicle’s Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopan
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