Whatever it takes: Congresswoman Trahan supports removing Trump from White House

By Robert Fucci 

She witnessed hundreds of “insurgents” rush the steps of the Capitol on Jan. 6, where a day before her daughters stood to see their mother sworn in for a second term. She saw one rioter walk through Statuary Hall with the Confederate flag.

And now Congresswoman Lori Trahan says she’s had enough.

Whether it’s by a second impeachment or use of the 25th Amendment, the representative of the 3rd Congressional District   wants President Donald Trump out of office prior to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

“Whatever it takes to get him out,” she said. “Donald Trump, because he’s directly responsible for the acts of terror that took place at the Capitol, he simply can’t be permitted to serve as president of the United States one second longer.”

The mob insurrection at the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., happened soon after Trump, during a “Save America Rally” that began hours earlier on the Ellipse, a park near the White House, encouraged supporters to march to the Capitol. Rioters started clashing with police just after 1 p.m.

Trahan said Trump should never be able to hold office again and should resign.

“We know he’s not going to do that,” she said. “I know there are reports cabinet members are considering invoking the 25th Amendment and I am hopeful pressure is building for that to happen.”

The 25th Amendment states that if the President becomes unable to do his job, the Vice President becomes the President. Vice President Mike Pence would have to agree, according to the text of the amendment, and would also need either a majority of Trump's cabinet officials to agree the President is unfit for office and temporarily seize power from him. Congress would need a two-thirds supermajority vote.

On Wednesday evening, Trahan supported Congress moving forward with articles of impeachment and agrees with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer Congress should reconvene with the impeachment process. She has since co-sponsored the articles drafted by her colleagues “because of his incitement of an attempted insurrection against our government.”

Sitting ducks

Trahan was in her office at the time of the Capitol breach. Due to COVID safety protocols, not all members of Congress can be on the House floor together.

She and two staff members were alerted by security to shelter in place. Fear had settled in as thoughts of whether the thousands of rioters outside the Capitol would overtake the halls.

“I don’t think anybody knew what was going to happen next,” she said. “Right after the Capitol was overtaken with this mob, we had gotten word that the Cannon House Office Building was evacuated. So we knew folks had made their way there as well.”

The day before, Trahan said rallying staging was going up, people walking throughout Washington maskless. She felt something big was going to happen.

“You feel like a sitting duck in many respects,” she said. “The days leading up to Wednesday, my husband and I looked at each other on Monday and said we have to fly the girls home. You could feel the mood change in Washington.”

The fact the Capitol police were unprepared for the riots had Trahan stunned.

 “I was surprised and frankly upset, and I think this is going to be a real area we dig into,” she said. “A lot of the leadership of the US Capitol Police were not prepared for this,” Trahan said. “Especially when just a few months ago in August for a Black Lives Matter protest, they were locked arm-in-arm with shields and forming a wall in front of the Capitol. We didn’t see any of that on Wednesday.”

Attack on democracy

Since Wednesday, five people have died, including a Capitol police officer who succumbed to injuries sustained during the breach.

Trahan said those actions were an act of domestic terrorism and those who participated in the breach terrorists.

“This was an attack on our democracy,” Trahan said. “One of which generations of heroic Americans have fought and died to defend. I was sad. I was enraged.”

One vision still haunting Trahan is of a rioter walking through the Capitol with a Confederate Flag.

“Statutory Hall is the hallowed ground of President Abraham Lincoln,” Trahan said. “To see that display of white supremacy and an act of insurgency and terror, those are images I’m not going to soon forget. That is something we must make sure never happens again.”