'Too Long': McCarthy Reportedly Dismissed Removing Trump Through 25th Amendment

An alleged phone recording between the leader of the House Republicans and Republican Lawmaker Liz Cheney has suggested that the former mulled urging Donald Trump to resign, instead of waiting for him to be impeached.

Reports have indicated that the leader of the House Republicans Kevin McCarthy allegedly considered and later dismissed the option to sack former-US President Donald Trump on 8 January, 2021 as taking "too long.” The allegations were revealed by the New York Times in a reported recording of a conversation between McCarthy and an aide.

While the context of the conversation is not clear from the parts aired by CNN, which also possesses a copy, the media outlet claims that McCarthy asked the aide about the options that House Democrats were considering in the aftermath of the 8 January events.

"I think the options that have been cited by the Democrats so far are the 25th amendment, which is not exactly an elegant solution", the aide responded, only to allegedly be interrupted by McCarthy saying: "that takes too long".

The Republican House leader reportedly went on to suggest that an attempt to remove Trump via the 25th amendment, which can be triggered by the vice-president and the majority of the cabinet, would only lead to the president overruling it. This in turn, would leave the cabinet and the VP the only option to proceed by seeking the support of two thirds of both the House and the Senate.

At the time, House Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi urged then-Vice-President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment, which was originally created to remove a president from power in case he or she were incapacitated or unable to "discharge the powers and duties of their office.” It allows the vice-president to be sworn in until the next presidential election is held.

Alternative to Divisive Impeachment

Instead of invoking the 25th amendment, the Democrats proceeded to impeach Donald Trump. They accused him of "inciting insurrection" on 6 January, 2021, when some of his backers broke into the Capitol demanding that the presidential vote count be halted.

In the alleged call with the aide, McCarthy suggests that impeachment was not something that would benefit the country. "From a perspective, you put everything else away, this country is very, very divided. I do think that the impeachment divides the nation further and continues the fight even greater".

McCarthy also reportedly sought a "smooth transition" to the Biden administration and wanted to ask the Democrat president to implore the country to move forward after the 6 January events. At the same time, McCarthy allegedly condemned Trump's actions as "atrocious and totally wrong” in the recording.

This is not the first tape of alleged McCarthy calls in the aftermath of January 6 to be released by the New York Times, which is about to present a book called "This Will Not Pass.” According to the previous tape, the House Republican leader considered asking Trump to resign himself instead of waiting for the results of the Democrats' impeachment.

McCarthy himself dismissed the reporting about his actions and conversations as incorrect. He insisted that he never believed that Trump should resign and was instead pre-occupied with Democrats' plans.

"What I was asked on a phone call was about the process, the 25th amendment, whether someone was impeached. We walked through ifs, ands and buts. It was never in the process to ask Trump to resign", McCarthy said.

Reacting to the reports, Donald Trump said he was unsatisfied, but maintained that his relations with the House Republican leader remain strong, in no small part due to what McCarthy had done for him after January 6.

"I think it’s all a big compliment, frankly. They realized they were wrong and supported me", the former president said.