Schumer, Others In HV Delegation Call For Trump's Removal

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — After violent rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, NY Sen. Charles Schumer and freshman Reps. Mondaire Jones and Jamaal Bowman called for President Donald Trump to be removed from office.

Schumer is poised to become the Senate Majority Leader now that two Democrats won senate seats during Tuesday's run-off election in Georgia.

“What happened at the U.S. Capitol yesterday was an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president," Schumer said in a statement Thursday about the pro-Trump mob. "This president should not hold office one day longer."

Schumer said the quickest and most effective way would be the 25th Amendment. It says in part:

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

However, Schumer said, "If the Vice President and the Cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president."

Jones, who won the 17th District Congressional seat after Nita Lowey retired, also urged that the 25th Amendment be invoked and announced that he had signed on to articles of impeachment for abuse of power and high crimes and misdemeanors.

Yesterday’s attempted coup by pro-Trump terrorists and white supremacists in the U.S. Capitol was incited by the president, he said.

Moreover, it "was abetted by his Republican co-conspirators in Congress," Jones said. "I have joined my colleague, Congresswoman Cori Bush, in calling for the expulsion of the members of Congress who have flagrantly violated the 14th Amendment."

The 14th Amendment says in part:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Bowman, who ousted longtime Rep. Eliot Engel to hold the 16th NY Congressional district seat, also signed on to articles of impeachment and called on House leadership to get started.

Not every member of the Hudson Valley delegation to Congress was as quick to call for removal. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney tweeted only:

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Antonio Delgado haven't made any public announcements since letting people know they and their staffs were safe. Gillibrand has said she would address the insurrection at a press conference Thursday afternoon.

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