Trump announces that he will not attend Biden's inauguration

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has announced that he will not attend the swearing-in ceremony of his successor, the Democrat Joe Biden, on 20 January. "To all those who have asked me, I will not be attending the inauguration on 20 January," Trump said in a tweet.

In an earlier message, the outgoing leader had sent a message to his supporters: "The 75,000,000 great American patriots who voted for me, America first, and make America great again, will have a giant voice in the future." "They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form," he added.

Trump explicitly acknowledged his defeat in the November election for the first time and condemned the assault by his supporters in Congress on Wednesday, a fact he has been blamed for rousing them with his unfounded allegations of voter fraud. In his message, Trump assured that those of his supporters who committed crimes in the assault on Congress, in which five people were killed, including a policeman, "will pay for it".

On the other hand, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, told the congressmen of both parties on Friday that she will begin the process of "impeachment" (impeachment) against Donald Trump if the president does not resign "immediately". The Democratic leader addressed the top military leaders to request a change in the nuclear weapons codes to prevent Trump from having further access to them until January 20, the date of Joe Biden's inauguration.

In a letter sent to all members of the House of Representatives, Pelosi asked the Republicans to request Trump's resignation because of the president's "dangerous and seditious acts", taking as an example the actions of the Republican Party at the end of Richard Nixon's presidency.

"Today, in the wake of the president's dangerous and seditious acts, Republicans in Congress need to follow that example and request that Trump leave office, immediately. If the president does not leave his post immediately and voluntarily, Congress will proceed with our action," Pelosi explained.

The growing pressure on Congress to begin the second impeachment process against Trump just days before he leaves the White House after losing the presidential election comes as Pelosi awaits the response from Vice President Mike Pence on whether he will invoke the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to remove the president from office.

The 25th Amendment allows for the removal of the President from office if the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet vote to remove him on the grounds of his inability "to exercise the powers and duties of office".

Pelosi also told Democratic Party members in the House of Representatives today that, although she prefers that Trump resign or be removed from office under the 25th Amendment, a new "impeachment" process against the president has more support in the party than the first process, conducted in early 2020.

Democrats plan to charge Trump with inciting insurrection in impeachment

The Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives plans to accuse outgoing President Donald Trump on Monday of "inciting an insurrection," which would unleash the process for an impeachment that could lead to the Senate in the middle of next week, several media reported Friday. The latest draft of the impeachment resolution, obtained by CNN, mentions only one charge against Trump, that of "inciting insurrection," and calls for him to be disqualified from holding future political office. "Donald John Trump committed serious crimes and misdemeanors by deliberately inciting violence against (one of the branches of) the United States Government," indicates the draft, which is also reported by ABC and NBC News.

The Democrats plan to introduce the charge, known as an impeachment piece, on Monday, which would allow them to schedule a quick vote on the issue in the lower house by the middle of next week, although there is not yet a final decision on the matter, according to CNN. In an impeachment, the House of Representatives is responsible for formally charging the president with the charges in a vote of the full House, while the Senate is responsible for evaluating the charges and deciding whether to remove the president, which requires a large two-thirds majority.

The dilemma facing Democrats in the House is that if they begin the process on Monday, when only nine days of Trump's presidency remain, the impeachment itself will most likely not take place in the Senate until President-elect Joe Biden is in office, starting on the 20th, CNN explained. That would be a major distraction from the legislative priorities Biden plans to send to Congress on his first day in office, aimed at addressing the pandemic, revitalizing the economy and reforming the immigration system.

Possible political disqualification for Trump

Although a Senate conviction of Trump beyond January 20 would no longer remove him from office, Democrats are considering a trial that would include his disqualification from future political office. The Democrats' draft calls for his removal from office and his "disqualification from holding and enjoying any office of honor, trust or benefit under the United States.

The Democrats are poised to retake control of the Senate after winning the two seats that were at stake in Georgia this week, but it is still unclear when exactly those two new senators will take office and whether it will be before January 20, when Biden comes to power.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, has said she will begin the process for an impeachment if Vice President Mike Pence does not act immediately to remove Trump according to the process set out in the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which seems very unlikely. In a call with his co-religionists on Friday, the majority consensus was that the impeachment should be initiated, but Pelosi failed to guarantee that it will happen, according to CNN.

This would be the second impeachment of Trump by the Democrats, after the one related to his pressure on Ukraine, which ended early last year with his acquittal in the Senate.

The Democrats' draft asserts that, by encouraging insurrection from his supporters, Trump "severely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government. "He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and endangered one branch of government. He therefore betrayed his trust as President, with consequent manifest harm to the people of the United States," the text states.