Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) reportedly floated the idea of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove then-President Trump from office in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Newhouse made the suggestion during a virtual meeting with House Republicans after the Capitol riot but before the chamber voted to impeach Trump, according to the new book “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future” by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.
The Seattle Times reported on the development involving Newhouse.
Newhouse noted during the meeting that nobody had brought up “invoking the 25th Amendment,” which enables the Cabinet to remove the president from office if more than half of the members agree to it.
During that same meeting, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) raised the prospect of top Republican figures in the House and Senate asking Trump to resign, according to The Seattle Times.
“I think another way out that we should consider as a conference,” Herrera Beutler said, according to the book, “is asking our own leadership to join with the Republican leadership in the Senate and asking this president to resign.”
The quotes from the meeting were taken from “firsthand” account, Martin told The Seattle Times.
The Hill has reached out to Newhouse for comment. A spokesperson for Herrera Beutler told The Hill on Wednesday that the congresswoman’s office does not comment on what is said during private caucus meetings.
The two GOP lawmakers pushing for strategies to remove Trump from the White House does not come as a shock, as the pair voted to impeach him following the Capitol riot. They were two of 10 GOP lawmakers to do so.
Herrera Beutler made headlines in the aftermath of the Capitol riot when she discussed a phone call that took place between Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as the attack was taking place. According to the congresswoman, McCarthy refuted Trump’s claim that the rioters were far-left antifa protesters, asserting that they were supporters of the president, which prompted Trump to say, “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”
–Updated on May 4 at 12:36 p.m.