South Coast Today/ WCVB-TV
BOSTON — U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, of Massachusetts, says the House of Representatives is planning to vote on whether or not to impeach President Donald Trump this week.
This comes after Trump supporters who were seething over his election loss stormed the U.S. Capitol Wednesday afternoon as Congress was finalizing President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, believing Trump’s false claims of a rigged election.
Five people died, including a police officer.
“A horrific, horrific chain of events,” Lynch said during a live appearance on WCVB’s “On the Record” Sunday morning.
Lynch, a Democrat who represents the 8th congressional district of Massachusetts, is among those in the Bay State’s congressional delegation who believe that Trump should be removed through office either through impeachment or by invoking the 25th Amendment.
If Vice President Mike Pence does not invoke the 25th Amendment by the end of the day Sunday, Lynch says the House will introduce an impeachment resolution on Monday and vote on that resolution on Wednesday.
“That’s the schedule right now. It’s subject to change, but I think it will hold firm,” Lynch said during his “OTR” appearance.
Lynch says he believes that impeaching Trump is “the right thing to do,” even though a conviction is unlikely to happen in the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate with just days remaining until Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
“I don’t think there’s ever a wrong time to do the right thing, and this is the right thing to do,” Lynch said. “You would think that the Senate — after having had the president direct a mob attack against the Capitol, against the House and Senate, putting them all in peril — that they would be receptive to at least debating and discussing the merits of impeachment against this president.”
“For history’s purpose, we want to know who the people are that stand up and defend the Republic, and we want to know who the quislings are. Let’s get on the record!” Lynch added.
According to Lynch, Pence has been reluctant to invoke the 25th Amendment or support that action, and has been reluctant to communicate with House and Senate leadership on that measure as of Sunday morning.
“It would be great if (invoking the 25th Amendment) were the case. That’s one avenue, but it’s closed off right now because of the lack of cooperation on the part of the vice president,” Lynch said.
Lynch, who is chair of the House Subcommittee on National Security, says there is a lot of action on social media about another attack on the Capitol on Inauguration Day in order to prevent Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris from assuming office.
“I trust that there will be much better preparation and much better leadership in terms of resisting that attack, but we’ll just have to wait and see,” the congressman said. “I know we’re taking extra precautions. The fences are going up, the 20-foot fences there, but it’s a shame. It is a shame.
“Think about that. We’ve got to take extraordinary measures to protect our safety and the safety of the Capitol from violent mobs,” he added. “That’s not how it should be.”
Lynch says it would be “a great result” if Trump would be barred from running for federal office in the future, and that a seditious conspiracy case could be brought against the president after he leaves office.
In the direct aftermath of the breach at the Capitol, Lynch said that he asked for a briefing on the Capitol police response. In addition, the congressman says he wants videos at the Capitol preserved.
On “OTR,” Lynch said he believes that the defense of the building would have been more robust if demonstrators of color and those supporting the Black Lives Matter movement had marched on the Capitol.
“I think that they would have paid greater attention to the circumstances,” the congressman said of law enforcement.
There are 17 known federal criminal defendants related to the Capitol riots. Some are people who grew violent with police, some are photographed in the building during the destruction, and some are people who allegedly brought guns and ammunition and, in the case of one man, Molotov cocktails, around the Capitol.
The Associated Press and CNN contributed to this report.
Recent Comments