From Segun Amure, (The New Diplomat’s Abuja Bureau)
The Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence on Tuesday opposed the request of the House of Representatives Speaker, Nancy Pelosi to impeach President Donald Trump using the 25th Amendment over the desecration of the U.S. Capitol Hill.
In a letter released by his office, Pence said: “I do not believe that such a course of action is in the best interest of our Nation or consistent with our Constitution.”
“Work with us to lower the temperature and unite our country as we prepare to inaugurate President-elect Joe Biden as the next President of the United States,” he said.
Recall that Nancy Pelosi in her reaction to the Capitol seige said, “The President of the United States incited an armed insurrection against America. The gleeful desecration of the US Capitol which is the temple of our democracy and the violence targeting Congress are horrors that will stain our nation’s history”
“I joined the Senate Democratic Leader in calling on the Vice President to remove the President by immediately invoking 25th Amendment. If the Vice President do not act, the congress may be prepared or impeachment” she said
However, Pence in condemning the impeachment move said “Last week, I did not yield to pressure to exert power beyond my constitutional authority to determine the outcome of the election, and I will not now yield to efforts in the House of Representatives to play political games at a time so serious in the life of our nation,” he wrote.
He further added that invoking the 25th
Amendment as a means of “punishment or usurpation” would “set a terrible precedent,”
Removal of a president under the 25th Amendment requires a declaration by the vice president and the majority of the president’s Cabinet.
Notably, the 25th Amendment is a potential vehicle for removing the president from the office. It was approved in 1967 in the wake of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, which lays out the procedures for replacing the president in the event of death, removal, resignation or incapacitation.
