President Donald Trump has said that he will not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration on the 20th January. He made this announcement on Twitter on Friday, 8th January.
If President Trump makes good his promise, he would be repeating history made in 1869 when President Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States was impeached as a result of political conflict, and the rupture of ideologies in the aftermath of the American Civil War.
Although, he later got an acquittal from the House having not been able to get the required 36 votes to impeach him. The House only got 35 instead of 36 against him. He later refused to attend the inauguration of his successor, a ceremony symbolizing the peaceful transfer of power.
Two days after Trump incited followers to storm Congress, his presidency is in freefall, with allies walking away and opponents calling for his removal.
Democrats in the House of Representatives, who already impeached Trump in a traumatic, partisan vote in 2019, said an unprecedented second impeachment of the Republican could be ready for a vote next week.
“We can act very quickly when we want to,” Representative Katherine Clark told CNN.
Whether Republican leaders of the Senate would then agree to hold a lightning fast impeachment trial before the January 20 transition is another matter.
However, with calls also swirling for cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment and declare Trump unfit for office, it’s clear that the billionaire real estate tycoon is out of friends.
Trump, whose incitement of crowds assaulting Congress on Wednesday capped relentless efforts to overturn Biden’s November 3 election win, finally conceded defeat on Thursday and appealed for calm.
“A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power,” Trump said in a short video.
However, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos became the second cabinet member to quit the government, telling Trump in a letter on Thursday that such “behavior was unconscionable for our country.”
Earlier, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, one of Trump’s longest serving cabinet members, announced she was departing over the “entirely avoidable” violence. A string of lower level officials have also left.
According to US media reports, the only reason the trickle hasn’t turned into a flood is the decision by senior figures to try and maintain stability during the transition to Biden.
Trump, however, appears to have lost the grip he once exercised on both the Republican party and his own staff as he rampaged through four years of one of the most turbulent presidencies in US history.
