US Democrats plan to introduce an article of impeachment against President Donald Trump for his role in the invasion of the US Capitol.
Meanwhile, Twitter has permanently suspended his account.
Photo: AFP
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would move forward with impeachment if Trump did not resign immediately.
The charge of "incitement of insurrection" is set to be introduced by House Democrats on Monday.
They accuse Trump of encouraging a riot in Congress in which five people died.
The articles also cite Trump's hour-long phone call last week with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which Trump asked the official to "find" enough votes to overturn Biden's victory in that state.
President-elect Joe Biden said impeachment was for Congress to decide, but said he had thought "for a long time President Trump was not fit to hold the job".
Nearly 160 House of Representatives Democrats have signed on to the bill, which congressmen Ted Lieu of California and David Cicilline of Rhode Island began drafting while they were sheltering in place during Wednesday's chaos at the Capitol.
Democrats hope the impeachment threat can intensify pressure on Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment before Trump's term ends in less than two weeks.
The White House dismissed the impeachment as a "politically motivated" move that would "only serve to further divide our great country".
"Impeaching President Donald Trump with 12 days remaining in his presidency would only serve to further divide the country," said White House spokesman Judd Deere.
If the process does go ahead, it would be the second time the House has pursued impeachment against Trump.
In December 2019, the lower chamber impeached Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. But the Senate acquitted him on both charges in February 2020.
Rioters breeched security and entered the Capitol as Congress debated the a 2020 presidential election Electoral Vote Certification. Photo: AFP or licensors
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Thursday and Friday (local time) found 57 percent of Americans want Trump to be removed immediately from office following the violence on Wednesday. Nearly 70 percent also disapproved of Trump's actions in the run-up to the Capitol rampage.
Twitter suspends Trump's accounts
Twitter, long Trump's favourite way to communicate with his supporters and a way to share his false claims of election fraud with his nearly 90 million followers, had been under increasing pressure to take action after Wednesday's (local time) mayhem in Washington.
Trump exhorted thousands of followers to march on the Capitol as Congress met to certify his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden, prompting chaos in which crowds breached the building, forced the evacuation of both chambers and left a police officer and four others dead in their wake.
"After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence," Twitter said.
Plans for future armed protests were proliferating on and off Twitter, the company added, including a proposed secondary attack on the Capitol on 17 January.
Photo: AFP
There was no immediate response from the White House to the move by Twitter. While he remains in office, Trump would still have access to the official @POTUS presidential account.
After Twitter had permanently suspended his @realDonaldTrump account, Trump tweeted from the US president's official @Potus account suggesting he would "look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the future" and railing against Twitter.
But the tweets were removed from the platform as soon as they were posted.
Reacting to the ban, Trump 2020 campaign adviser Jason Miller tweeted: "Disgusting... if you don't think they're coming for you next, you're wrong."
'I want him out'
Trump's role in encouraging Wednesday's chaos has opened a growing rift within the Republican Party.
Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, a frequent Trump critic, told CBS News he would "definitely consider" impeachment because the president "disregarded his oath of office".
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said Trump should resign immediately and that if the party cannot separate itself from him, she is not certain she has a future with it.
"I want him to resign. I want him out. He has caused enough damage," the Alaska Senator told the Anchorage Daily News.
It is unclear whether lawmakers would be able to remove Trump from office, as any impeachment would prompt a trial in the Senate, where his fellow Republicans still hold power and two-thirds of the 100 members must vote to convict for his removal.
Law professor Brian Kalt said on Twitter that Pelosi's call for legislation on the 25th Amendment is unlikely to happen before the end of Trump's presidency.
For the 25th Amendment to be invoked, Pence and the majority of Trump's Cabinet would need to declare that Trump is unable to perform the duties of the presidency and remove him. Pence is opposed to the idea of using the amendment, an adviser said.
Pelosi also said she had spoken with the nation's top general, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, about preventing Trump from initiating military hostilities or launching a nuclear weapon.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi Photo: GETTY via AFP
Pelosi told members on a Democratic conference call that she had gotten assurances from Milley that there are safeguards in place, a source familiar with the situation said.
"Sadly the person that's running executive branch is a deranged, unhinged, dangerous president of the United States," she said in an excerpt of an interview on CBS's "60 Minutes" program.
Republican defections from Trump
The FBI and prosecutors are investigating and criminally charging people who took part in violence at the Capitol.
A handful of Republicans, including Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and US Representative Adam Kinzinger, have said Trump should leave office immediately.
Numerous senior Trump administration officials have resigned including two Cabinet members: Elaine Chao, the transportation secretary and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's wife, and Betsy DeVos, the education secretary.
But Trump allies, including Senator Lindsey Graham and the House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, had urged Democrats to shelve talk of impeachment to avoid further division.
McConnell has not commented on a possible impeachment.
An uncharacteristically subdued Trump finally denounced the violence in a video on Thursday and promised to ensure a smooth transition. But a more familiar, pugilistic tone returned on Friday, as he said on Twitter that his supporters would never be "disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!"
He also said he would not attend Biden's inauguration, departing from a time-honoued tradition that typically sees the outgoing president escort his successor to the ceremony.
Alan Dershowitz, who helped represent Trump during his impeachment trial last year, said he would be honoured to stand up for the president again, if asked. He said he did not think Trump committed an impeachable offence, and his statement to supporters was not incitement.
"Impeaching this president for making a speech would do more damage to the Constitution than the rioters, horrible as they were, did last Wednesday," Dershowitz, a professor emeritus from Harvard Law School, said.
- Reuters/ BBC