Impeaching President Donald Trump is not the most "ideal" way of dealing with him after the riots at the Capitol, but as it doesn't appear that he'll step down or that Vice President Mike Pence will invoke the 25th Amendment and remove him, there are no other options, Rep. Adam Schiff, who managed the president's impeachment last year, said Tuesday.
"The best thing for the country would be for him to resign or for the vice president to find a backbone and invoke the 25th Amendment," the California Democrat said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "But neither of those things seem likely, so we will do what we have to do to try to protect the country."
Trump and Pence have both signaled that the president won't leave office early, but Schiff said that he doesn't hear anyone saying that it's safe to leave him there or that his actions before the rioting broke out weren't impeachable.
"The founders understood there could be contingencies at any time during a presidency, including the last two weeks, and the mechanism they provided is nimble enough to be provided in this emergency," said Schiff.
He added that there is no question of there being enough votes to impeach the president.
"The only question at this point is how many Republicans will support the impeachment and how many will continue to make excuses and equivocate, and as they did a year ago come up with the rationalizations for why they won't do their duty," said Schiff.
He added that it's "very important" that Trump not be permitted to serve as president again, but that his priority is taking whatever action to remove the "clear and present threat" that's being faced while Trump remains in the White House.
Meanwhile, many in Congress are "mystified" about why the Capitol Police were so outnumbered and why the rioting hadn't been anticipated, said Schiff, while defending other officers and commending them for their actions.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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