Republican calls for Trump's resignation multiply

With ten days to go before the end of his term, Donald Trump faces increasing calls for his resignation, including from the Republican camp, to avoid a difficult impeachment process in the midst of a political, health and economic crisis. 

After Republican Senators Ben Sasse and Lisa Murkowski, Senator Pat Toomey ruled on CNN Sunday that a resignation from the president "would be the best option.

Since losing the November 3 presidential election, Donald Trump "has sunk to a level of insanity and committed absolutely unthinkable and unforgivable acts," he said.

"The best thing for the unity of the country would be for him to resign," said ABC's Alan Kitzinger, who was elected to the House of Representatives and was the first Republican to call on Thursday to declare the president "unfit" to serve.

Isolated in the White House, dropped by several ministers, in cold blood with his vice-president Mike Pence, the American billionaire gives no sign that he is ready to resign, according to his advisers quoted by the American press.

Dismissed from Twitter and other major social networks that want to avoid further incitement to violence, Donald Trump now has limited alternatives for communicating with the general public.

Officials, meanwhile, continue to search for the pro-Trump protesters who issued death threats against Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- the second and third highest ranking state officials -- during Wednesday's assault on the Capitol.

According to NBC, the FBI has received more than 40,000 pieces of information from the public on its site, including videos that are currently being analyzed.

A video was circulating on Twitter on Sunday showing at least five people using truncheons, batons and even crutches to attack a police officer on the ground.

It could be Capitol Hill police officer Brian Sicknick, who died Thursday from injuries received in the Congressional attack and whose body was solemnly transferred Sunday, greeted by a ceremonial hedge, from the morgue to the funeral home.

A high metal fence was erected around the building and law enforcement was reinforced until Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20, which Pence said he would attend.

" Profanation "

Nancy Pelosi, who has promised to take action if the incumbent president does not resign, on Saturday called on her troops to return to Washington this week to decide how to punish Trump for the murderous assault on Capitol Hill, which he is accused of encouraging.

In an open letter to elected officials, she did not mention a possible impeachment, but she said it was "absolutely essential that those who led this assault on our democracy be held accountable. "It must be established that this desecration was instigated by the president," she added.

An impeachment bill introduced in the House of Representatives, signed by at least 200 members of Congress, charges that the Republican president "deliberately made statements" that encouraged his supporters to invade the Congress building on Wednesday.

Democratic Congressman James Clyburn said the motion could be debated this week. "It could be Tuesday or Wednesday," he told CNN.

But it's a long and complicated process, and many in the Democratic camp believe it could hamper President-elect Joe Biden's plans, who has made the response to the VIDOC-19 pandemic his top priority.

"Let's give the president-elect 100 days" early in his term to address the most pressing issues, Clyburn suggested. "Perhaps we could introduce the (impeachment) articles a little later.

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin told CNN that impeachment proceedings after January 20 "would make no sense.

"I'm not even sure it's possible to impeach someone who is no longer in power," Toomey said.

However, a second "impeachment" would leave an indelible mark on Trump's record: no U.S. president has ever been so disgraced.

In power since 2017, Donald Trump has already been targeted in Congress by a disgraceful impeachment procedure, opened by Nancy Pelosi at the end of 2019 on the charge of having asked a foreign country, Ukraine, to investigate his rival Joe Biden. He had been acquitted in the Senate, with a Republican majority, in early 2020.

Source : AFP