House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said the House Sergeant at Arms – the chamber’s top law enforcement official – is resigning in the aftermath of Wednesday’s siege on the Capitol.
Paul Irving, who serves as the House’s chief officer in charge of securing the building and tasked with overseeing the safety of lawmakers, was a target of criticism after the intense security breach that led to dozens of Trump protesters storming the Capitol.
“I have received notice from Mr. Irving that he will be submitting his resignation,” Pelosi said. “Having said that, we’ll have the after action review but it goes beyond the Capitol Police.”
The California Democrat also called for the resignation of the Capitol Police Chief, Steven Sund, calling it a “failure of leadership at the top of the Capitol Police.” Pelosi added that she hadn’t heard from Sund since Wednesday’s attack. “He hasn’t even called us since this happened.”
Pelosi joined the growing calls by many Democrats to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove President Donald Trump from office in the final days of his presidency, telling reporters at a press conference that if this wasn’t done the House would be prepared to vote on articles of impeachment.
Trump
“I join with the Senate Democratic leader in calling on the vice president to remove this president by immediately invoking the 25th amendment,” she told reporters. “If the vice president and Cabinet do not act, the Congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment.”
Pelosi delivered stinging comments about Trump, calling him a dangerous man who the country – for its own safety – can’t afford to keep in the White House for his final two weeks of his term.
“This man is deadly – to our democracy and to our people,” Pelosi said.
Her remarks come a day after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol as they counted electoral votes, disrupting proceedings and forcing lawmakers to evacuate. Pelosi’s office was among those that were ransacked. Some congressional Democrats laid the blame on Trump for inciting the riot, calling for his removal from office or impeachment for a second time.
“The President has committed an unspeakable assault on our nation and our people,” she said, characterizing the insurrection from the pro-Trump rioters as “acts of sedition and acts of cowardice.”
Pelosi was visibly upset as she spoke about the trauma of congressional staff members who were forced to lock themselves in rooms and hide under desks while “terrorists” banged on doors. “They didn’t sign up for that,” she said.
“To meet with them and to see how frightened they were because these thugs – these Trump thugs – decided that they would desecrate the Capitol with no thought what harm they might do physically, psychologically or in any other way.
“And they will be prosecuted,” she added. “They will be prosecuted. Justice will be done.”
Pelosi’s comments came shortly after the Senate’s top Democrat, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, joined the chorus of lawmakers calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and move with the Cabinet to remove Trump from office. If they failed to do so, Congress needed to reconvene to impeach Trump for a second time, he said.
Declaring “the president must be held accountable again,” Pelosi put out a challenge to Trump’s Cabinet: “Ask each member of the Cabinet, do they stand by these actions? Are they ready to say in the next 13 days, this dangerous man can do further harm on this country?”
“We are in a dangerous place in this country as long as Donald Trump still sits in the White House,” she said.
Pelosi said she’s not sure when Pence will respond to her call to trigger the 25th Amendment
“I don’t think that it will take long to get an answer form the vice president. It will be yes or it will be no,” she said.
“I say I pray for the president every day, and I do. Last night was the hardest day for me. At 5 o’clock in the morning, when I finally got home, as I was praying at night, I said, ‘You gotta keep praying for him, you’ve gotta keep praying for him. Maybe, maybe there’s some hope.’ But we can’t take that chance because people’s lives are at stake as well as our democracy,” she said.
Earlier, theSenate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer, had called for Trump’s impeachment.
The Democratic leader made the call after Trump’s supporters breached the Capital Hill on Wednesday.
Schumer, in a statement, said what happened was an insurrection against America incited by the President.
“The quickest and most effective way, it can be done today; to remove this president from office will be for the Vice President to immediately invoke the 25th amendment.
“This President should not hold office one day longer. If the Vice President and the Cabinet refused to stand up, congress must reconvene to impeach President Trump”, the lawmaker demanded.
Also on Thursday, former U.S. Attorney-General, William Barr declared that the American leader orchestrated the mob action.
Barr, in a statement, said his conduct “was a betrayal of his office and supporters”.
“Orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable,” Barr noted.
Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary, Elaine Chao, announced Thursday her resignation from the Trump administration after the president’s supporters, whom he called “great patriots,” besieged the Capitol.
She is the latest senior official to leave the administration.
In a resignation letter sent to her colleagues at the Transportation Department, Chao said the riot was a “traumatic and entirely avoidable event,” noting the president had just addressed his supporters before they ransacked the federal legislature.
“As I’m sure is the case with many of you, it has deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot say aside,” she wrote in the letter, a copy of which she posted to Twitter.
Her resignation will be effective January 11, but Chao said her department will continue to assist former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg as he prepares to assume the helm of the department after he is confirmed by the Senate sometime after President-elect Joe Biden is sworn-in January 20.