Democrats to stage impeachment effort

President Donald Trump has less than two weeks left in office, but that’s too long for his staunchest critics. House Democrats said they plan to introduce articles of impeachment against the president, saying he “willfully made statements that encouraged—and foreseeably resulted in—imminent lawless action at the Capitol.” They also plan to vote on a resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence to attempt to remove Trump from office under the 25th Amendment. Since a group of Trump supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, critics from both parties have called the president dangerous and said he should depart the White House early. On Friday, Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, addressed this tweet to Trump: “Could you please step down and let our country heal?”

Can Congress remove Trump at this point? Logistically, the constitutional impeachment process typically takes longer than nine days—the time from Monday until President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. On Friday, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said lawmakers should spend their energy elsewhere: “We don’t need more theatre.”

Dig deeper: Read Joshua Raimundo’s first-hand account of the Capitol riots.