Pelosi tells military leaders not to allow Trump to flex nuclear muscle

WASHINGTON — Calling President Donald Trump “unhinged,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday to prevent him from initiating military actions or instigating a nuclear attack in his final days in office.

In a telephone call to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, Pelosi asked that precautions be taken to prevent what she believes is an unstable president from ordering a nuclear strike.

“The situation of this unhinged president could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi made the disclosure in a letter to Democratic colleagues and later in a conference call, where she said she was prepared to hold a vote on articles of impeachment over his role in the violent insurrection this week at the Capitol.

She said he was prepared to move forward on impeachment after Vice President Mike Pence dismissed requests to invoke the 25th Amendment and have the Cabinet take the president’s power away.

Members of the House Judiciary Committee are writing articles of impeachment, and the full House could be called back into session next week.

Support for impeachment of the president is growing, with some Republicans such as Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska saying he would consider a vote to convict if the House adopts the articles and he agrees with the wording.

But Sasse minced no words in pointing a finger of blame directly at Trump for inciting this week’s carnage.

“What he did was wicked,” Sasse told CNN.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaskan Republican, told the Anchorage Daily News that she wants Trump to resign.

“I want him out. He has caused enough damage,” she said.

Capitol Police officer dies

U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, a 12-year veteran of the force, died late Thursday from injuries suffered trying to protect lawmakers from rioting hooligans who broke into the building and forced a lockdown and eventual evacuation of the Capitol.

“Five people have now died because of the act of insurrection,” Pelosi said. “This is a stain on our nation’s history.”

Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., issued statements condemning the violence and offering condolences to the family of the fallen police officer who died defending the national symbol of democracy.

Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., offered prayers to Sicknick’s family called for a congressional investigation into the events of Jan. 6 and how the rioting was “allowed to descend into such violence and destruction that resulted in a loss of life.”

“Those responsible must be held accountable,” Horsford said.

A federal murder investigation into the death of the officer has been launched.

Going too far

Although Trump was the target of criticism from most lawmakers, freshman Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., apologized for remarks in a recent speech where she invoked Adolf Hitler and said he “was right on one thing,” that whoever has the support of youth has the future.

One day later, some Trump loyalists storming the Capitol wore shirts glorifying the Nazi death camp Auschwitz and others with an acronym that translates to the message that the deaths of 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust were not enough.

Jewish anti-defamation groups were outraged. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., a former Las Vegas synagogue president, decried anti-Semitic words by Miller, without mentioning her by name, and the action of rioters.

“I’m horrified by the anti-Semitic rhetoric and symbols we witnessed yesterday — from a Member of Congress saying ‘Hitler was right on one thing’ to a rioter inside the Capitol wearing a “Camp Auschwitz shirt,” Rosen said on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Pelosi ordered flags lowered to half-staff to honor Sicknick. She also fired the U.S. Capitol Police chief and accepted the resignation of the House sergeant at arms.

The Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C., is conducting an investigation into the deaths of three other people, from Georgia, Alabama and Pennsylvania who traveled to the nation’s capital to take part in the March to Save America, where Trump urged his followers to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue to the U.S. Capitol.

Police said the three died of “medical emergencies” during the rioting.

And support continued to grow in Congress to take action to remove Trump, though the clock is running out on his term and President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in Jan. 20.

Trump defends himself

Trump, whose Twitter account was restored after a 12-hour suspension, typed out a brief message Friday, saying he would not attend Biden’s inauguration, defying a presidential tradition that signifies the peaceful transfer of power symbolic of America’s democracy.

And he appeared to issue a warning on Twitter against efforts to remove him.

“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!,” Trump wrote.

Twitter later Friday banned Trump’s account, citing “the risk of further incitement of violence.”

Pence signaled to congressional leaders that he was unlikely to invoke the 25th Amendment, which would allow him and Cabinet members to seize the power of the presidency.

Pelosi said that 50 years ago, Republicans told President Richard Nixon that it was time to go.

Following impeachment proceedings by the House Judiciary Committee, Nixon resigned before a House vote and a Senate trial.

Republicans now need to follow that example, she said.

“If the president does not leave office immediately and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action,” Pelosi said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Senate Judiciary chairman and one of Trump’s strongest supporters in Congress, said the president has claimed it’s time to heal and move on.

“If Speaker Pelosi pushes impeachment in the last days of the Trump presidency, it will do more harm than good,” Graham said. “I’m hopeful President-elect Biden sees the damage that would be done from such an action.”

Speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden said a second impeachment of Trump would be up to Congress but urged lawmakers to be prepared to move on his agenda and confirm his Cabinet as he takes office.

Nevadans support impeachment

Other Republicans denounced Trump’s actions but dismissed impeachment as a futile effort as the president prepares to leave and there is little time for impeachment.

Others said the president’s actions of this week were proof that Trump will use all powers available to remain in office, to the detriment of the country.

Nevada’s Democrats in the House, Horsford, Dina Titus and Susie Lee, favor impeachment of the president if he fails to be removed by Pence or if Trump does not resign from office.

Lee said Trump “actively incited the attack on lawmakers in the Capitol and on our democracy itself. For that, he deserves to be removed from office.”

Horsford is a co-sponsor of the impeachment resolution drafted by the House Judiciary members.

But the majority of the state’s delegation, Lee, Republican Rep. Mark Amodei and Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, both Democrats, mentioned the short time frame and the fact that Trump’s term will expire in fewer than 12 days.

The senators, who voted to convict Trump in 2020 after the House impeached the president on charges of obstruction of Congress and abuse of power, said they would continue to work with lawmakers in both parties to protect America’s democracy and institutions in the waning days of the administration.

A previous version of this story misstated the timing of President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.