SPLC Action Fund: House of Representatives Must Now Vote to Remove Trump From Office After Pence’s Refusal to Invoke 25th Amendment

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Vice President Pence sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stating that he would not invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office. The move came moments before the House of Representatives voted on a measure calling on VP Pence to invoke the 25th. 

Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the SPLC Action Fund, issued the following statement in response.

“Vice President Pence has failed in his duty to the American people and the Constitution by refusing to invoke the 25th amendment and begin the process of removing President Trump from office. The SPLC Action Fund now calls on Congress to immediately impeach Donald Trump.

“America and our democracy hinge on fragile yet powerful values that are far greater than any individual or party. Trump, his Republican enablers, and the members of the right-wing media have trampled the Constitution to perpetuate lies about election fraud and subvert our democracy. Trump’s refusal to grasp that the majority of voters in the 2020 presidential election want to evict him from office led him to incite his supporters to launch a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol as part of a failed attempt to prevent President-elect Biden from taking power. Five lives were lost, and the death toll could have been far greater if the mob had found the lawmakers and aides that they were hunting in the halls and corridors of the Capitol complex.

“Donald Trump is incapable of executing the duties of the presidency and poses a clear, present, and growing danger to the Constitution and the country. Since Vice President Pence refused to put America above party by invoking the 25th Amendment, the SPLC Action Fund implores Congress to immediately vote to impeach Donald Trump. Again.”