Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, said Friday that President Trump “has got to be stopped dead in his tracks,” either by impeachment or having him stripped of the powers of his office via the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.
Ms. Waters, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, called for an investigation into the U.S. Capitol Police’s failure to stop Wednesday the mob that overtook the Capitol building, blaming President Trump for inciting the crowd and warning that he may be trying to start a “civil war.”
“There’s got to be prosecutions. There’s got to be accountability,” Ms. Waters said on “The Joe Madison Show” on SiriusXM. “And of course, this president, who has lied his way all the way up, until this insurrection that he has caused, and the fact that we all, many of us believe he is trying to create a civil war, has got to be stopped dead in his tracks, however we can do it: whether it is Amendment 25 or whether it is a new way by bringing him up before the Congress.”
Under the 25th Amendment, a president who is deemed incapable of carrying out the job may be removed from office.
Congresswoman @RepMaxineWaters just told me she believes Donald Trump is trying to start a Civil War and he must be removed. Listen live on @SXMUrbanView: https://t.co/niyie2Macv pic.twitter.com/pEl2b0zA5h
— Joe Madison (@MadisonSiriusXM) January 8, 2021
In 2016, Ms. Waters used the same language when referring to Mr. Trump, saying that he was a “liar and a trickster and he’s full of fraud and should be stopped dead in his tracks,” according to Breitbart.
During the Friday interview, Ms. Waters also blasted U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who has since tendered his resignation, saying she quizzed him beforehand about security.
“[Sund] was telling us that he had it all under control. It turned out he had nothing under control. Nothing under control. And we were overrun,” said Ms. Waters. “The Capitol of the United States of America, one of the most supposedly secure buildings in the country, was breached, and with them climbing the wall it looked like a Third World country overtake of the government.”
She said she asked him about the top of buildings, which she worried could be used by snipers.
“[Y]ou know what I was thinking about? I was thinking about John Kennedy and Martin Luther King in opposite buildings and windows near the top of those buildings, and how they target people and they snipe and they could kill people,” she said. “And that’s what really was on my mind. I asked him about all of that.”
A mob breached the Capitol building after hearing Mr. Trump speak at the Save America March on the Ellipse, with some breaking windows, vandalizing offices and fighting with police.
Five people died in incidents related to the siege. Officer Brian Sicknick died at the hospital after engaging with rioters. Ashli Babbitt of San Diego was shot and killed by an officer. Three others died of medical conditions.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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