Former Rep. Jason Chaffetz condemned President Trump’s actions during Wednesday’s Capitol Hill riot, calling it the “worst day” of Trump’s presidency.
“I think most Republicans were appalled by the president’s actions on Jan. 6. I think it was one of the most shameful days,” the Utah Republican said on Fox and Friends Sunday. “I think it was the worst day of the Trump presidency.”
Chaffetz, who went on to call the president’s handling of the situation “reprehensible” and “absolutely wrong,” stopped short of calling for Trump’s removal from office, arguing that legislators should instead focus on healing and delivering policy victories to the American people, such as working out kinks in the national distribution of the coronavirus vaccine.
“I think we’re going to spend, nine, 10 days, arguing with each other, instead of focusing on things like, ‘How do we get more of the distribution of COVID-19 vaccine to actually get into people’s arms?’ things like that,” said Chaffetz. “The people have spoken. They have made a change. There is going to be a transition. … It’s going to happen on Jan. 20, and if you’re going to start to collectively take a deep breath and move on with this country, I think this exercise [of impeachment], which really doesn’t have enough time to play out anyway, it does not do things to actually move our country forward.”
Chaffetz’s remarks come amid mounting pressure from Republicans for Trump to be removed from office prior to his scheduled Jan. 20 departure on Inauguration Day. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican, became the first member of the president’s party to call for the president’s removal when he implored Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, deeming Trump “unmoored.” On the Senate side, two members have followed suit, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski publicly asking Trump to resign and Sen. Pat Toomey signaling openness to the president’s removal, stating that his actions were “impeachable offenses.”
Trump’s forced expulsion remains unlikely given the current composition of the federal government. In order for him to be removed, either Pence would need to invoke the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution, a provision allowing for the forced removal of a sitting president if the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet vote accordingly, or two-thirds of the Senate would need to join the 180 Democrats who support an expedited second impeachment effort. The current partisan makeup of the Senate indicates that efforts to convict the president would likely fall short.
