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‘After violent pro-Trump protesters stormed the US Capitol a growing number of Republican leaders and Cabinet officials told CNN that they believe Donald Trump should be removed from office before January 20. Four of them called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked, and two others said the President should be impeached,’ reported Michael Warren, Jamie Gangel and Jim Acosta in CNN.com.
‘By impeaching and removing Trump, even at this late stage of his term, the Senate could subsequently vote to disqualify Trump from ever holding federal office again. On the other hand, invoking the 25th Amendment would require Vice President Mike Pence and a majority of the Cabinet to vote to remove Trump from office due to his inability to “discharge the powers and duties of his office”,’ they reported.
Calling it an ‘unprecedented step’, they also reveal that ‘some Cabinet members are holding preliminary discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment,’ quoting a ‘well-placed GOP source’,
Meanwhile in an unprecedented step, Twitter suspended the account of President Donald Trump for 12 hours Wednesday after he repeatedly posted false accusations about the election after his supporters stormed the Capitol following a Trump rally.
Twitter locks account of outgoing US President Donald Trump for 12 hours following removal of three of his tweets. https://t.co/EJUdTx3t49 pic.twitter.com/jdQpJ6C3xF
— ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2021
Twitter said that future violations by Trump would result in a permanent suspension.
Earlier, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube removed a video of Trump in which he repeated unfounded claims that the election was stolen from him after his supporters stormed the US Capitol.
In the video, Trump also said that he loved his supporters.
“I know your pain. I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it–especially the other side. But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order,” Trump said in his video that lasted for less than a minute.
He posted the video after thousands of his supporters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday and clashed with police, resulting in multiple injuries and interrupting a constitutional process to affirm Joe Biden’s victory in the November presidential election.
Facebook’s vice president integrity Guy Rosen said: “This is an emergency situation, and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump’s video. We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”
Facebook prohibit incitement and calls for violence, a Facebook spokesperson says. “We are actively reviewing and removing any content that breaks these rules,” the spokesperson said.
YouTube also deleted the video, saying it “violated our policies regarding content that alleges widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 US election.”
