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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Media report US Cabinet mulled Trump removal
US President Donald Trump, left, walks with then-acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney before departing from the White House in Washington on Jan 13 last year. Photo: AFP
AIDES RESIGN: Mick Mulvaney, a former White House chief of staff yesterday, said he was quitting a diplomatic post, while US Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger resigned on Wednesday
/ AFP, WASHINGTON
Members of US President Donald Trump’s Cabinet on Wednesday discussed the possibility of removing Trump from office after his supporters stormed the US Capitol, three US news channels reported.
The discussions focused on the 25th Amendment to the US constitution, which allows for a president’s removal by the vice president and Cabinet if the president is judged “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
Invoking it would require US Vice President Mike Pence to lead the Cabinet in a vote on removing Trump.
CNN quoted unnamed Republican leaders as saying that the 25th Amendment had been discussed and some have described Trump as “out of control.”
CBS reporter Margaret Brennan said that “nothing formal” had been presented to Pence, and ABC reporter Katherine Faulders said that “multiple” sources had told her that discussions took place on the unprecedented move.
Trump’s encouragement of the protesters, his unfounded claims that he lost last year’s US presidential election due to massive fraud and other bizarre behavior have raised questions about his ability to lead.
While only two weeks remain before US president-elect Joe Biden takes office, after the attacks on the US Congress, lawmakers of the Democratic Party also called for invoking the 25th Amendment.
Democrats on the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Pence urging him to act to remove Trump, saying that Trump “sought to undermine our democracy.”
Pointing to a rambling speech Trump gave on Wednesday, the letter said that he “revealed that he is not mentally sound and is still unable to process and accept the results of the 2020 election.”
Others blamed Trump for fueling terrorism.
“The President incited a domestic terror attack on the Capitol. He is an imminent threat to our democracy and he needs to be removed from office immediately,” US Representative Kathleen Rice said on Twitter.
In other developments, Mick Mulvaney, a former chief of staff in Trump’s White House, yesterday announced that he had quit his diplomatic post as special envoy for Northern Ireland to protest mob violence by Trump supporters at the Capitol.
“I can’t stay here, not after yesterday. You can’t look at that yesterday and think I want to be a part of that in any way, shape or form,” Mulvaney told CNBC television.
Mulvaney said he told US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he was resigning.
“I can’t do it. I can’t stay,” he told CNBC, indicating that other White House staff were eying the exits.
“Those who choose to stay, and I have talked with some of them, are choosing to stay because they’re worried the president might put someone worse in,” he said.
Mulvaney’s announcement came a day after US Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger resigned, as did Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary turned spokeswoman for first lady Melania Trump.
Pottinger, a leading figure in the development of Trump’s China policy, resigned in response to Trump’s reaction to the mob that breached the US Capitol, CNN reported, citing a person close to Pottinger.
Bloomberg first reported the resignation.
Pottinger’s boss, US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, was considering quitting, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
There was also talk inside the White House that deputy chief of staff Chris Liddell might resign, a source said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
