Crapo would not support removing Trump from office

Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) said Thursday afternoon it is unlikely he would support the removal of President Donald Trump after a Wednesday protest among Trump supporters in Washington, D.C., de-evolved into a violent riot, leaving the nation shaken and at least one protester dead.

“The country is too divided now,” Crapo said Thursday, “and invoking the 25th Amendment with less than two weeks left in this administration would only make matters worse.”

Crapo’s comments come as pressure mounts on Vice President Mike Pence and members of Trump’s own cabinet to consider whether or not to invoke the 25th Amendment of the Constitution, which empowers the vice president and the majority of the the cabinet to remove a sitting president if they deem the President is unable to discharge the duties of the office.

Speaker Nancy Peloisi said Thursday that House Democrats are considering articles of impeachment should Pence and the cabinet fail to remove Trump.

Wednesday’s bloodshed came after, in a morning speech to his supporters, the president stoked a crowd attending Washington’s Stop The Steal rally, the largest in a network of similar rallies held around the country, including in Coeur d’Alene.

“Our country has had enough,” Trump told the crowd. “We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. To use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.”

Later in the one-hour-and-13-minute speech, Trump reiterated his claims that the general election was rigged, and that he — not President-Elect Joe Biden — won the election, claims thrown out in 61 out of 62 courtrooms over the past two months in which Trump loyalists have filed lawsuits contesting the election in one form or another.

“Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy,” Trump urged. “After this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down. We’re going to walk down any one you want, but I think right here. We’re going walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

Rallygoers followed Trump’s instructions, marching down to the Capitol building while Congress was going through the usually-ceremonial formality of receiving and counting the electoral votes to declare a winner. But those proceedings were interrupted as protesters turned into rioters, breaking through police barricades, doors and windows in a daylong occupation of the Capitol.

A Trump supporter — Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran who reportedly was wearing a Trump flag as a cape during the incident — was shot in the neck as she rushed the House chamber. She was transported to a nearby hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.

Later in the day, President Trump called for peace in a video he posted on Twitter, a video where he again reiterated his claims the election was stolen. Trump’s remarks throughout the day sparked outrage across the country as the insurrection unfolded on live television. Meanwhile, Capitol and Metro police, along support from the National Guard, eventually re-claimed the Capitol from its first attack since 1814, when British troops set fire to the building during the War of 1812.

Over 206 years later, Crapo’s staff said the best course of action was to let tensions settle in the president’s final 13 days of office, whether or not impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment would ever come to fruition.

“Our position with impeachment is, it’s not likely to garner the support it would need, like the last time the president was impeached,” Lindsay Nothern, Crapo’s communications director, told the Coeur d’Alene Press. “This time, it’s the same deal: I don’t know if it would get enough votes.”

Three other supporters of the president died over the course of the day at the Washington, D.C., riot from medical emergencies, though no details have been released regarding those circumstances. Fourteen police officers were injured in the attack, according to Police Chief Robert Contee.

Crapo added that he looks forward to the coming session, flavoring his statement with notes of bipartisanship.

“When the 117th Congress reconvenes after the Inauguration, I will do as I always have," he said. "I will reach across the aisle to find solutions to the most pressing problems, and I will maintain my commitment to the conservative principles of limited government, protection of the private sector, free market policies and protecting personal freedoms under the Constitution.”