Washington: Multiple reports on Friday (January 8) indicated that House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi is concerned about preventing an "unhinged" US President Donald Trump from carrying out a potential nuclear strike, as the date for the transfer of power inches closer.
According to the reports, Pelosi even met US military's top officials about taking precautions in order to prevent an “unstable president from initiating military hostilities or... ordering a nuclear strike”.
The meeting between Pelosi and Pentagon's top generals saw the concerned officials talk about the President's access to the classified nuclear codes, among other things.
The move was announced by her office Friday in a letter to the House Democrats under a section titled: “Preventing an Unhinged President From Using the Nuclear Codes.”
“This morning, I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike,” Pelosi wrote.
She added, “The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy.”
The conversation between the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was confirmed by Milley's spokesperson, David Butler to news outet CNN.
Impeachment process
The letter was released amid a collective push by Democrat leaders to fast-track the impeachment process of President Trump, possibly to remove him even before President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.
Top Democratic leadership has urged Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution to remove President Donald Trump from office for his "incitement of insurrection", a day after his supporters attacked the US Capitol in a violent breach.
The 25th Amendment allows for the president to be removed from office by the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet.
In an unprecedented assault on democracy in the US, thousands of supporters of outgoing President Trump stormed the Capitol building on Wednesday and clashed with police, resulting in four deaths and interrupting a constitutional process by Congress to affirm the victory of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in the election.
On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, at separate news conferences, said they will move impeachment proceedings in the Congress if Trump was not removed from office through the 25th Amendment.
"In calling for this seditious act, the president has committed an unspeakable assault on our nation and our people. I join the Senate Democratic leader in calling on the vice president to remove this president by immediately invoking the 25th Amendment," Pelosi said.
"If the vice president and Cabinet do not act, Congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment. That is the overwhelming sentiment of my caucus and the American people, by the way," she told reporters.
"Justice will be done to those who carried out these acts, which were acts of sedition and acts of cowardice. To those whose purpose was to deter our responsibility, you have failed. You did not divert the Congress from our solemn constitutional purpose to validate the overwhelming election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as president and vice president of the United States," she said.
Schumer told reporters that if the vice president and the Cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach Trump, who has less than two weeks in office.
The publishers permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)