COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn, the third-highest ranking Democrat in the House, said Friday President Donald Trump needs to be removed from office before his term ends in the wake of Wednesday's riot and insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Clyburn said Vice-President Mike Pence should invoke the 25th Amendment--which allows for the removal of the president by the V.P. and the cabinet if the president is unable to carry out his duties--or Congress will move to impeach.
"This president says he wants to be remembered for doing things that have never been done before?" Clyburn said. "He will be remembered--and he should be remembered--for being the first president in the history of this country to be impeached twice."
The siege at the Capitol by a mob of thousands of angry Trump supporters left five dead, including a Capitol Hill police officer. The Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate and the head of the Capitol Hill Police force have both lost their jobs as a result of what House and Senate leaders said was a failure to take proper precautions.
"We had plenty of signs for it [security] to be enhanced," "They enhanced it for peaceful black demonstrators," Clyburn said. "They had nothing to ward off unlawful thugs who happened to have been white."
"This is an attempt by a racist president to do his part to what would be tantamount to a race war in this country. This is bad stuff."
He called for a full accounting of what took place, including how the mob seemed to target the most sensitive areas of the Capitol. Clyburn said the only place that has his name above the door is his office entrance near Statuary Hall in the Lincoln Room. But he said none of the rioters touched that door. Instead, the rioters went to the third floor where his staff was and where he usually is during the day.
"How did they know to go all the way up to the third floor where there is no indication of my presence there and go into that hallway and never touch the door where my name is?" he asked. "That sends chills."
He said his staff put office furniture on the door to keep people from entering.
He said they remain "rattled" by the experience.
The House already impeached Trump in 2019, but the Republican-led Senate acquitted him in early 2020.
A steady stream of Trump administration officials are beating an early path to the exits as a protest against the deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol this week. But others wrestling with the stay-or-go question are concluding that they owe it to the public to see things through to the end. President Donald Trump’s behavior in a few harrowing hours this week was a line too far for several high-profile officials serving the president. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao on Thursday became the highest-ranking administration officials to resign over the pro-Trump insurrection.