Pelosi seeks to curb Trump’s nuclear power, plans to impeach
Published:Friday | January 8, 2021 | 3:46 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats laid plans Friday for impeaching President Donald Trump, even as he’s headed out of the White House, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she had spoken to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about preventing an “unhinged” Trump from ordering a nuclear strike in his final hours and days.
Pelosi and the Democrats are considering swift impeachment — as soon as next week — in response to the deadly siege of the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob that shocked the nation and the world
“We must take action,” Pelosi declared on a conference call.
She said she had spoken with General Mark Milley “to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes” for nuclear war.
She said Milley assured her longstanding safeguards are in place.
The president has sole authority in the US government to order the launch of a nuclear weapon, but a military commander could refuse the order if it were determined to be illegal.
Trump has been making no such threats, and he is to leave office on January 20 when Democrat Joe Biden is sworn in.
But top lawmakers are sounding alarms that the president could do great damage on his way out.
“This unhinged president could not be more dangerous,” Pelosi said of the current situation.
A person granted anonymity to discuss the private call said Pelosi also discussed other ways Trump might be forced to resign.
And if he were to be impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate, he might also be prevented from running again for the presidency in 2024 or ever holding public office again.
He would be only the president twice impeached.
Conviction in the Republican Senate at this late date would seem unlikely.
But it’s a measure of his uncomfortable position that fewer Republicans are speaking out against his removal.
One Trump ally did.
Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California said “impeaching the President with just 12 days left in his term will only divide our country more.”
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