NJ Rep. Pascrell Takes Aim At GOP, Calls For Trump's Removal

WASHINGTON, DC — Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. took to Twitter Thursday to call for the arrest of documented insurrectionists, call for the removal of some GOP congress members and, by late afternoon, call for the removal of President Donald Trump from office.

Pascrell, who Wednesday said Trump should be prosecuted after he leaves office, responded to a New York Times report that Trump is considering a self-pardon by joining at least four other New Jersey congress members in saying he is in support of Trump's removal via the 25th Amendment.

According to The Times, Trump has confided in aides recently that he wants to pardon himself, a move that Pascrell said is "illegal and unenforceable."

"This is another reason trump should be removed before January 20," he added.

Articles of impeachment were drafted by Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN), after a pro-Trump mob stormed their way into the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to halt the Electoral College certification of Joe Biden as the next president of the United States.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the 25th Amendment should be invoked to remove Trump from office, if not "Congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment."

Pascrell didn't respond directly to those articles as other members of Congress did, but did announce that he's signed onto a resolution drafted by Rep. Cori Bush (MO) which seeks expel members of Congress "who have incited this domestic terror attack through their attempts to overturn the election."

Though Bush drafted the resolution, expelling members of Congress who supported unfounded claims of election fraud isn't a new idea to Pascrell, who first pitched something similar in December.

"Donald Trump and other prominent Republicans have commenced a daily assault on the legitimacy of the election that includes filing dozens of frivolous lawsuits seeking to have the results invalidated," said Pascrell at the time. "Tragically, Members of our House of Representatives are supporting and amplifying these attacks on democracy, now culminating in 126 House Republicans joining a malignant lawsuit filed by the state of Texas against the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin."

Now, one day after insurrectionists stormed the Capitol, Pascrell said these same Republicans incited the violence that left four people dead.

"The leaders of the republican party built this by spending the last four years coddling an authoritarian and decades fueling and feeding domestic extremism for cynical gain," said Pascrell.

"Yesterday’s terrorist mob was the gop’s Frankenstein come to life."