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  • U.

  • S lawmakers in the House of Representatives are readying legislation that could remove President Trump from office.

  • House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that they would first urge Vice President Mike Pence to activate the 25th Amendment, declaring the president unfit for office now.

  • If that fails, they would take steps toward impeachment.

  • Five people, including a police officer, died when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the capital last week, a solemn moment on the streets of Washington, D.

  • C.

  • Police officers pay tribute to their colleague Brian Sic Nick, who died from his injuries after President Trump's supporters invaded the Capitol building on Wednesday.

  • In his honor, US Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered flags to be flown at half mast.

  • But Sunday will also be remembered in Washington as the day that Pelosi sent a letter outlining her plans to try to have Trump removed from office using words that pulled no punches.

  • We will act with urgency, she wrote, because this president represents an imminent threat.

  • The horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this president is intensified on DSO is the immediate need for action.

  • The fear is that Trump supporters will try to stage another act of insurrection before the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20th.

  • Security has been tightened in the capital, but Pelosi's plans to have Trump removed are fraught with difficulties.

  • Firstly, is thought that Vice President Mike Pence is unlikely to lead any attempt tohave Trump rejected by activating the 25th Amendment, declaring him incapable of carrying out his duties on with barely two weeks to go for Trump's presidency.

  • Impeachment is also thought to be tricky, with some Democrats fearing it could overshadow Joe Biden's 1st 100 days in office.

  • Whatever the outcome, it seems Trump's departure from office will be his unconventional and tumultuous as his entire presidency.

  • Let's get more.

  • We are joined by reporter William Group Goo Croft, William.

  • Tell us, the Democrats, as we've heard they're calling for impeachment.

  • How realistic is it?

  • Impeachment itself is quite realistic.

  • Democrats could simply put the articles, the article, I should say, one article of impeachment to the floor for a vote.

  • They have the majority, and they could impeach the president.

  • The trickier question is, then, when that moves over to the Senate for a trial, remember, the Senate is not in session right now will come back after Inauguration Day could technically come back into session.

  • But for all intents and purposes, we won't see any Senate activity until next week, when Biden is already president.

  • That leaves the question of what the point is.

  • Of course, there's a symbolic aspect that the Democrats want to show that what happened on Wednesday that Donald Trump played a role in inciting does not stay and cannot stand.

  • And then, of course, there's also the practical aspect that if he were impeached and convicted even after he were out of office, it could be possible then for the Senate to move to essentially prohibit him from ever running for public office ever again.

  • Meantime, we know that the incident has been splitting the GOP, and I just like to draw our viewers attention to the fact that former California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has spoken out.

  • He's compared the mom that stormed three U S capital to the Nazis.

  • Let's listen in and then we'll get your reaction they're after now.

  • I grew up in Austria and very aware of Kristallnacht or the night of broken glass.

  • It was a night off rampage against the Jews carried out in 1938.

  • But the Nazi equivalent off the proud boys Wednesday was the day of broken glass right here in the United States.

  • The broken glass was in the windows off the United States Capitol, but the map did not just shattered the windows of the capital.

  • They shattered the ideals we took for granted.

  • They did not just break down the doors of the building that housed American democracy.

  • They trampled the very principles on which our country was founded.

  • William.

  • A dramatic ah, horrific comparison there.

  • What do you think His intention waas in making this comparison?

  • Well, of course, wants to make, uh, make his point that we don't really know where we are right now in the present time.

  • You know, looking back on history, we have the luxury of seeing the dots all connected, neatly lined up for us.

  • You know, today we look back and many historians say Kristallnacht in 1938 was the official beginning of the Holocaust.

  • Of course, back then there was no way to know that.

  • And so his warning is of course, you know, take this seriously, Uh, because we don't know where this might lead.

  • Of course, you don't have to go to Germany or Austria for examples of fascism in the United States.

  • It has a long history.

  • A dealing with fascist elements, including the 19 thirties itself, was a very tumultuous time on, if not for America's very strong institutions and very strong leadership, especially under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the president of the time.

  • The United States could have gone a very different and dangerous direction.

  • I think that's what Schwarzenegger is trying to say right now that without the institutions and the leadership, um, these right wing vigilantes or militia and whatever you wanna call them could pose a very serious problem for the Republican for for democracy at large.

  • And it's important also to remember that there will indeed be a change of leadership.

  • So it does differ in that way the two situations, um, you know, given that change of leadership from a historical perspective, Schwarzenegger says that Trump will go down in history as the worst president ever in the United States.

  • Let's listen.

  • I do believe that we must be aware off the dire consequences off selfishness and cynicism.

  • President Trump sought to overturn the results of an election and of a fair election.

  • He saw the coup by misleading people with lies.

  • My father and our neighbors were misled also with lies, and I know where such lies lead President Trump is a failed leader.

  • He will go down in history as the worst president ever.

  • The good thing is that you soon will be as irrelevant as an old tweet.

  • He uses the word of relevant there.

  • William, perhaps pick up on that a little bit because ultimately, 70 million U.

  • S citizens did vote for Donald Trump.

  • So where does that leave the country?

  • Million.

  • 74 million Americans voted for Donald Trump, of course, not all of them far right militia men or white supremacists.

  • But that under current is very strong, as we saw on Wednesday at the Capitol highly organized plan to storm the capital, incited by some of the remarks that Donald Trump and his supporters his political supporters made.

  • So Trump may be going away as of January 20th or sooner if Democrats get their wish.

  • But Trumpism is not, uh, and this is something that the Republican Party has to deal with.

  • What is the future of that party, we should know that Arnold Schwarzenegger is a longtime critic of Donald Trump.

  • He and the president have gotten into quite the Twitter social media wars in the past, especially when it came to immigration and these kinds of things eso Schwarzenegger would itself be viewed as an enemy by these conspiracy theorists that Onley see Donald Trump as as their guy as we're seeing now with other senators and other political officials and public officials who were once staunch Republican Excuse me, Trump allies being heckled, being threatened because they're now seeing to break to break ranks.

  • So this is a very serious problem the Republican Party is gonna have to deal with.

  • But it's also something they've been dealing with for years, as the party has moved further right in an effort to win elections and to hold on to, uh, it's ah, minority off of voters and and this is something I have to go forward as that party that split gets even more extreme, and we're gonna be dealing with that the United States.

  • We're dealing with that for many more years to come, regardless of who's in charge.

  • De W's William Glue Croft breaking it all down for us.

U.

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