Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has accused President Donald Trump of orchestrating an attempted coup following a riot by some of his supporters at Capitol Hill.
The Minnesota Democrat is leading a fresh push to impeach Trump. She's already drawn up articles of impeachment to submit to the House of Representatives and believes they can succeed.
Omar spoke to Minnesota's MPR News on Thursday about the violence at the Capitol and the next steps for dealing with the president, who will only be in office for the next 12 days.
"We must impeach and remove him from office immediately so he cannot threaten our democracy and the world any longer and hold public office ever again," Omar told MPR News.
"Congress should reconvene immediately to carry out this constitutional duty."
Omar said she had no confidence that Trump's cabinet would invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president at this stage.
"It would be really quite fascinating to have the ability to trust those individuals who have been part of his administration, who have been complacent in his activities to take the lead and invoke the 25th Amendment," Omar said.
"As we've just learned moments before I got on with you, Vice President Mike Pence has said he has no interest in invoking the 25th Amendment."
Omar appears to be referring to a Thursday report from Business Insider that cited two aides to Pence saying he wasn't willing to remove Trump. The report has not yet been independently verified.
"So we are left with figuring out what it means for us as members of Congress, how to fulfill our oath to protect our nation," Omar went on. She was then asked what had changed since the last time Trump was impeached that might lead to a Senate conviction.
"A lot has changed," Omar said. "We have just witnessed the president take part in an attempted coup and there is a clear understanding that he poses an imminent threat to not just our democracy but to our republic and to the world and having him remain in office any longer is not in the best interests of our nation."
