Another Senate Democrat has called for President Donald Trump to be removed from office over the Iran war.
“I certainly think the president should be removed,” Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said. “I mean, he’s unfit for office. I think the 25th Amendment, and if not, then impeachment.”
Congressional Democrats, particularly in the House, have recently escalated their position against Trump’s war in Iran, shifting from pushing for Congress to reassert its authority in declaring war to demanding that the president be ousted from office.
Trump’s comments in the past few days, particularly his threat against Iran that a “whole civilization will die” unless the Strait of Hormuz was reopened, sparked the latest growing push to have him removed from office.
While there is growing sentiment among House Democrats to jettison Trump from office, it’s not as widespread in the Senate. Still, Kim on Thursday joined a small group of Senate Democrats echoing the desires of their counterparts in the House.
So far, Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.; Ed Markey, D-Mass.; and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., have all either demanded that Trump be impeached or removed through the 25th Amendment.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has stopped short of calling for impeachment, but instead is teeing up another war powers resolution — the fourth since the war began in February — to rein in Trump’s war authority in the region as a fragile two-week ceasefire continues.
But their calls for removal likely aren’t going to go anywhere now given the political reality in Washington, D.C. Republicans control both chambers of Congress, meaning impeachment is all but a moot point.
And invoking the 25th Amendment, which has never been used to remove a sitting president, is even more unlikely, given that it would require Vice President JD Vance, a majority of Trump’s Cabinet and then a two-thirds majority vote in Congress to remove him.
It’s also a desire that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., contended was “not realistic right now, given his oddball Cabinet of sycophants and eccentrics.”
“We’re going to have to buckle down and win this the old-fashioned way,” Whitehouse said.
Democrats’ position does provide foreshadowing of what could happen if they win big in the midterm elections this fall, however.
Congressional Republicans are still backing Trump’s actions in Iran despite some straying from the party line over his recent apocalyptic comments.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said, “Iran has been at war with the United States for 47 years, and it’s time for Iran to choose peace.”
“They haven’t done it yet,” Barrasso added. “What we have seen is American peace through strength, and with this operation that is going on now, incredible success by the United States.
“We have done what we have talked about doing. Eliminate their missiles and eliminate their missile production and eliminate their missile firing capacity, undermine their ability to ever get a nuclear weapon, and sink the navy.”
