Brown: Senate Should Act Swiftly If House Impeaches Trump

Congress should “very seriously” consider impeaching President Donald Trump again if Cabinet officials and Vice President Mike Pence do not try to remove him from office under the 25th Amendment, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said Friday.

The Senate should be ready to act quickly if the House votes to bring articles of impeachment against Trump over Wednesday’s storming of the U.S. Capitol by extremists supportive of the president, he said.

“If impeachment looks imminent in the House, we will all be prepared to return, and we should vote, we should do that trial in one day and move,” Brown told reporters in an online news conference.

Brown was among the senators who were ushered to safety Wednesday afternoon as the mob entered the Capitol and disrupted the counting of electoral votes. Five people died as a result of the chaos, authorities have said, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer and a woman who was fatally shot by police.

Since then, Brown and other Democratic lawmakers have called for Trump to be removed from power before Joe Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

“I spent four-and-a-half hours with 75 senator locked in a room this week. Impeachment didn’t really come up, per se, but the 25th Amendment did,” he said. “Republican senators are not going to tell me that they support it, but I know a number do thing it’s a good idea to do the 25th Amendment.”

Few Republican lawmakers have publicly endorsed such a move. Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) told Spectrum News he “would not oppose” Cabinet members moving to remove Trump.

Meanwhile, members of Ohio’s congressional delegation are pressing for an explanation as to how the mob overwhelmed Capitol Police.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said Friday he planned to hold hearings on the security failures.

“Wednesday’s violent and criminal acts directed at our Capitol, a symbol of American Democracy, will forever be a stain on our nation’s history,” Portman said in a statement released by his office. “Due to the heroic acts of many, the perpetrators of this attack failed to achieve their goal.”

Portman made the announcement jointly with ranking member Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and the leaders of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

Rep. Tim Ryan, chairman of the committee that funds the Capitol Police, has announced the launch of a similar investigation in the House.