Kinzinger First Republican Lawmaker to Support Removing Trump From Office

WASHINGTON — United States Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., on Thursday became the first GOP lawmaker to call for the invocation of the 25th Amendment to remove President Donald Trump from office. 

Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution’s 25th Amendment allows the vice president and a majority of “principal officers” of executive departments or Congress to submit a written declaration that the president is unable or unfit to discharge the powers and duties of the office. Such a declaration would install Vice President Mike Pence as acting president. 

“Here’s the truth. The president caused this,” Kinzinger said in a video address posted to his Twitter account. “The president is unfit and the president is unwell. And the president now must relinquish control of the executive branch voluntarily or involuntarily.” 

Kinzinger continued, “All indications are that the president has become unmoored, not just from his duty, nor even his oath, but from reality itself. It’s for this reason that I call for the vice president and members of the Cabinet to ensure the next few weeks are safe for the American people and that we have a sane captain on the ship.” 

“I think it’s obvious that there are people that their own political survival demands that they create a different narrative to what happened yesterday, and creating a different narrative is going to lead to something like this happening again, or maybe worse,” Kinzinger said in the video address.

Scores of Democratic lawmakers have already called for Trump’s removal and all Democrats serving on the House Judiciary Committee jointly penned a letter to Pence probing him to act. Although pressured by Congress, it remains unclear if Trump’s cabinet members have discussed his removal from office. 

Although the first to call for Trump’s removal, Kinzinger is not the first Republican congressional leader to censure the president’s actions that incited a rebellious mob to storm the U.S. Capitol building. 

After the proceedings resumed on the Senate floor Wednesday evening, Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., said while she at first intended to object to the certification of her state’s election results, she could no longer do so “in good conscience.” 

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., called violence by the president’s supporters “wrong and un-American” in remarks on the floor of the Senate. Further, Paul said a vote to overturn a state’s election was the antithesis of the principles of Republicans who support states’ rights. 

“Trump and I, we’ve had a hell of a journey,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “I hate it to end this way. From my point of view, he’s been a consequential president. But today — all I can say is ‘Count me out. Enough is enough. I’ve tried to be helpful.’”