WCVB-TV
By Sharman Sacchetti
BOSTON —Nearly a week after the breach of the U.S. Capitol, members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation are among those forging ahead with plans to impeach President Donald Trump for a second time.
The latest article of impeachment accuses Trump of inciting the deadly riot that broke out at the Capitol last Wednesday.
“It’s not safe to have President Trump near a Twitter app, much less the nuclear codes,” said Rep. Jake Auchincloss, who represents the 4th Congressional District of Massachusetts. “We need to remove him from office immediately.”
“Our nation, our democracy and our freedom cannot risk another day of the Trump presidency,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, of the 2nd District.
McGovern, chair of the House Rules Committee, criticized U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, of Ohio, during the committee’s Tuesday hearing after Jordan refused to say the 2020 presidential election was not rigged.
“If we want to talk about healing, we have to talk about truth,” McGovern told Jordan during the hearing.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution Tuesday night that calls upon Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, which would remove Trump from power.
Pence, however, said that the 25th Amendment was off the table in a letter he sent to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi before the House voted.
With the vice president choosing not to invoke the 25th, the House is set to hold an impeachment vote on Wednesday.
“I think it’s the clearest-cut vote I’ll ever have to make in Congress,” said Rep. Bill Keating, of the 9th District. “The president organized and incited an attack on our government.”
“He’s a threat on the world stage, he’s a threat to the institutions of democracy and he needs to be taken away from the levers of power,” Auchincloss said.
Rep. Stephen Lynch, of the 8th District, says many of his Republican colleagues in the House and Senate are feeling the gravity of the attack on the Capitol. As many as four in the GOP, including Rep. Liz Cheney, of Wyoming, have said that they are in favor of impeaching Trump.
“I do know that it shook them greatly and personally when the president directed a violent attack against the Senate,” Lynch said. “It got their attention.
“I’ll be happy when he’s gone, and he will not be gone soon enough for my preference,” Lynch said of Trump.
Auchincloss, Keating, Lynch, McGovern and the other seven members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation are all Democrats.
The future of the impeachment effort is less clear in the U.S. Senate, where two-thirds support is needed in order to convict Trump.
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