Editor’s note: This news analysis is by VTDigger’s managing editor, Paul Heintz.
Vermont’s Democratic leaders were quick to condemn President Donald Trump on Wednesday for inciting an angry mob to storm the U.S. Capitol. But it was a Republican — the state’s top-ranking member of the GOP — who went a step-and-a-half further.
In a stunning statement issued shortly before 6 p.m. that day, Gov. Phil Scott called for his fellow Republican to leave the White House immediately — or be dragged out of it.
“President Trump should resign or be removed from office by his Cabinet, or by the Congress,” Scott said in the statement, becoming the first Republican governor or senator in the nation to make such a call.
According to the governor, the president had “orchestrated a campaign to cause an insurrection that overturns the results of a free, fair and legal election,” and his “delusion, fabrication, self-interest and ego” had led the nation to such a moment.
“Make no mistake, the president of the United States is responsible for this event,” Scott said. “The fabric of our democracy and the principles of our republic are under attack by the president. Enough is enough.”
It was not exactly breaking news that Scott would distance himself from Trump. Since 2015, when the former was running for governor and the latter for president, Scott has criticized Trump’s divisive brand of politics.
In the years since, the distance between the two has only grown. In September 2019, Scott called on the U.S. House to launch impeachment proceedings against Trump for pressuring the Ukrainian president to investigate a political rival, former Democratic vice president Joe Biden. On Election Day last November, Scott revealed that he had voted for Biden over Trump, the only Republican governor in the country to do so.
But calling on the cabinet or Congress to invoke the 25th Amendment — a tool used to forcibly remove a president — is a different kettle of fish.
Vermont’s left-leaning delegates to Congress, who were themselves targets of the insurrection, initially did not go quite so far.
Writing on Twitter late Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called Trump “directly responsible for the chaos of today” and said the president would “do anything to remain in power — including insurrection and inciting violence.” In a written statement, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said that Trump “promotes delusional conspiracy theories and encourages felonies.” Leahy also called for prosecution of “the criminals who injured people, defiled the nation’s Capitol and destroyed thousands of dollars’ worth of property.”
But neither Sanders nor Leahy immediately called for the removal of the president.
During a conference call with reporters Wednesday afternoon following his evacuation from the House, Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., initially dodged a question about whether Trump should be ousted from office, focusing instead on the importance of certifying the results of the 2020 election. Asked again, Welch said he’d welcome Trump’s early departure from the White House but didn’t anticipate it.
“I’d support removing the president right away. I don’t think it’s realistic,” Welch said. “But if anyone has earned impeachment or removal, President Trump has done it repeatedly.”
The next day, after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, called for Trump’s removal, Welch and Leahy issued more forceful statements.
“The President should not hold office for 1 more day,” Welch wrote on Twitter Thursday afternoon. He said he’d support three options: resignation, invocation of the 25th Amendment or immediate impeachment. “This needs to happen,” Welch continued. “I will support whichever method removes him fastest.”
Shortly thereafter, Leahy wrote on Twitter that Trump was “an ongoing and immediate threat to our constitutional republic.” The senator continued: “He should either immediately resign or the Vice President should invoke the 25th Amendment. Absent that, I support Congress reconvening to impeach the president.”
In Vermont, a chorus of state politicians — including the leaders of the House Democratic, Republican and Progressive caucuses, the newly sworn-in Senate president pro tempore and the lieutenant governor-elect — issued statements throughout Wednesday evening criticizing the president. Even Vermont Republican Party chair Deb Billado, a hardcore Trump supporter who earlier that day had defended Vermonters who had attended the rallies in D.C., got in on the condemnation, calling the riots “wrong, immoral and against the fundamental principles that we hold dear.”
By Thursday morning, Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan, a Democrat, was calling on Acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to investigate the president.
“This was not a protest, but a brazen criminal insurrection,” Donovan said in a written statement. “I am requesting that the Department of Justice immediately conduct a thorough criminal investigation and prosecute anyone, including President Donald Trump, for inciting and carrying out this riot.”
But it was Scott who led the way.
The question now, according to Kemi Fuentes-George, a Middlebury College associate professor of political science, is what Scott does next. Does he remain in a political party that has become so thoroughly dominated by the soon-to-be ex-president? Or does he leave it?
“Trumpism is not going to end with Trump, right?” Fuentes-George said, noting that plenty of Republican senators, such as Josh Hawley and Tom Cotton, appeared eager to take up the mantle. “So, you know, I don’t think [Scott is] going to be able to avoid being lumped in with where the Republican Party’s coming from for much longer.”
Mike Dougherty contributed reporting.
This news analysis was updated with statements Thursday afternoon from Rep. Peter Welch and Sen. Patrick Leahy.
