Thompson joins Garamendi in calling for Trump's removal from office
Both Congressional representatives issued the demand following the siege at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
(Image: U.S. Representative Mike Thompson, center-right, with the late Rep. John Lewis, center-left, and other members of Congress appear in an undated photograph. Public domain photo/Solano NewsNet)
The violent siege at the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday has now drawn condemnation and calls for the President’s removal from both of Solano County’s congressional representatives.
On Thursday, Congressman Mike Thompson joined his colleagues in urging Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which allows for the removal of the President upon a certain set of circumstances, including deteriorating mental fitness, if they are unable to discharge their duties.
His plea was first posted to his office’s Twitter account and later re-iterated in a telephone interview with the Vallejo Times Herald newspaper.
“We need to do whatever we can to remove him from the position of power,” Thompson said, according to the newspaper. “In addition to that, he needs to be impeached for a second time. The articles of impeachment have been drafted and I’ve signed onto that effort. I believe it should be done as quickly as possible.”
Thompson joined his fellow lawmakers in calling for Trump’s removal following a violent siege on the U.S. Capitol building by pro-Trump protesters. The riot came after Trump himself addressed the group during a rally earlier in the day where he repeated meritless claims of fraud related to the 2020 presidential election, which he lost.
The siege at the Capitol claimed the lives of five individuals, including a U.S. Air Force veteran from Southern California who participated in the riot and a police officer who was dispatched to help protect the building and lawmakers inside.
Dozens of people have been criminally charged in federal and state court for their participation in the attack, and many more are being sought by law enforcement officials for additional arrests.
Lawmakers have called for Trump to be removed from office after they say he incited the violence there. Trump and his staff have downplayed those concerns, though his rhetoric before and after the attack was enough to warrant his removal from Twitter on Friday, leaving him without his preferred online megaphone.
Several of Trump’s associates were also suspended from Twitter late Friday evening, and other social media platforms have suspended or severely restricted Trump’s ability to publish comments, citing a need to prevent further violence.
(Image: Riot police stand outside the U.S. Capitol building following a violent siege by pro-Trump protesters on Wednesday, January 6, 2021. Photo by Tyler Merbler.)
In calling for Trump’s removal from office, Thompson joined a growing chorus of fellow lawmakers, including Congressman John Garamendi who tweeted similar comments urging Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and members of Congress to draw up articles of impeachment. Thompson represents the Solano communities of Vallejo, Benicia and rural areas immediately nearby, while Garamendi represents the rest of the county and Travis Air Force Base.
With less than two weeks in office, some have wondered if starting the process for Trump’s removal is nothing more than an attempt to send a message or a show of unanimous force by Congressional Democrats and most Republicans alike. But Thompson downplayed those concerns in his interview with the Vallejo newspaper, saying the danger in what Trump might do over the next 10 days before his transition out of office is serious enough to take immediate action.
“You saw how much damage he did [on Wednesday],” Thompson said. “I’m frightened to think about what else he could do…[Trump] is completely off the rails. He’s become an enemy of the state.”
One day after the newspaper interview, Thompson tweeted that he had participated in a virtual meeting with the House Democratic Caucus to discuss various ways to remove Trump from office.
“The President must be removed as soon as possible,” Thompson wrote. “He put our democracy at risk and incited an armed insurrection in order to undermine our Constitutional process and the peaceful transfer of power.”
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