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Schumer calls for Trump's immediate removal via 25th Amendment or impeachment

07 January 2021
 Dan Ackermann

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday called for Vice President Mike Pence and members of President Trump's Cabinet to remove him from office via the 25th Amendment.

Why it matters: It's a drastic demand by the top Democrat in the Senate, underscoring the severity of the situation after the insurrection at the Capitol on Wednesday. Some confidants and Republican officials have privately consider invoking the 25th Amendment, which has long been dismissed as a liberal fantasy.

  • Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a frequent critic of the president, became the first Republican in Congress to call for the 25th Amendment to be invoked.
  • Schumer said that if the Cabinet does not exercise the 25th Amendment, Congress should reconvene to impeach and remove Trump. No president has ever been impeached twice.

What they're saying: “What happened at the U.S. Capitol yesterday was an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president. This president should not hold office one day longer," he said in a statement.

  • “The quickest and most effective way — it can be done today — to remove this president from office would be for the Vice President to immediately invoke the 25th amendment. If the Vice President and the Cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president.”

Of note: Congress is out of session until Joe Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.