Democrats officially introduce impeachment article; Republicans block 25th Amendment resolution

WASHINGTON – House Republicans on Monday blocked a resolution aimed at encouraging the removal of President Donald Trump through the 25th Amendment while Democrats introduced a new impeachment article against the president.

The two-pronged effort to remove Trump from office in the waning days of his presidency comes after a pro-Trump mob broke into the Capitol last week in a deadly riot.

Democrats can bring up on Tuesday the 25th Amendment resolution and the House could consider the impeachment article the following day.

"There may well be a vote on impeachment on Wednesday," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters.

If passed by the Democrat-controlled House, Hoyer said the impeachment article should immediately be sent to the Senate.

Some Democrats have suggested the article be delayed to give the Senate time to first consider President-elect Joe Biden’s nominations and top policy priorities before holding an impeachment trial.

While the article has no Republican co-sponsors, Rep. David Cicilline, one of the authors, said he's hopeful some will vote for it.

“He incited insurrection against the government of the United States that resulted in the death of five individuals, dozens of people injured in violence here at the Capitol,” the Rhode Island Democrat told reporters Monday.

Cicilline said he and other Democrats would prefer that Vice President Mike Pence trigger the 25th Amendment or that Trump resigns on his own.

"Days have passed, and it is clear that neither of those possibilities will be realized," Cicilline wrote in an opinion piece in The New York Times published Monday. "So it is Congress’s responsibility to act."

Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., on Monday blocked Democrats from bringing up a resolution to urge Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and become acting president.

Under House rules, it took only one lawmaker to block immediate consideration of the resolution aimed at pressuring Republicans to take power away from Trump.

Mooney had been among the House Republicans who voted last week not to accept the state-certified election results showing Trump lost reelection.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Republican's rejection of the resolution is enabling Trump's "unhinged, unstable and deranged acts of sedition to continue."

"Their complicity endangers America, erodes our Democracy, and it must end," she said in a statement.

The resolution calls on Pence and the Cabinet to, within 24 hours, "declare what is obvious to a horrified Nation: That the President is unable to successfully discharge the duties and powers of his office."