In the wake of yesterday's unprecedented violence, we've seen a string of resignations from the Trump administration overnight. And this morning, the president himself is facing mounting calls to resign or be removed from office. NBC's Kristen Welker is at the White House for us.
The White House in Chaos
Good morning to you. This is a White House in chaos with, as you say, multiple officials resigning overnight. And now lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are rebuking President Trump for encouraging violence. NBC News has confirmed this morning there is even talk of invoking the 25th Amendment here within the administration to remove President Trump from office with fears there could be more unrest in the wake of violence by his supporters. Nearly 100 lawmakers in Congress this morning are calling for President Trump's removal from office.
That's where we are right now. And he's incited this. This was a coup. You cannot sugarcoat this. You cannot be nice about it. The incoming Senate majority leader squarely blaming Mr. Trump for the uprising.
Martin Smith here and this is happening right now, unfolding in real time. Over 100 members of Congress have now publicly declared that Trump must leave office immediately through resignation, impeachment, or the 25th Amendment. This is not fringe opposition. This is not a handful of disgruntled lawmakers venting frustration. This is a substantial, rapidly growing block of elected representatives formally concluding that the president of the United States is unfit to serve.
These lawmakers have moved far beyond ordinary political criticism. They have filed formal articles of impeachment accusing Trump of conduct so severe, so fundamentally dangerous that it directly threatens the very institutions that hold American democracy together. This goes far beyond policy disagreements or partisan friction. This strikes at the absolute foundation of governance itself.
What We Are Actually Talking About
Let's be completely clear about what we are actually talking about here. HRE 537 has been filed because the president has committed what many leading legal scholars consider a textbook impeachable act. He has seized Congress's exclusive constitutional power to declare war, ripping that authority directly from the legislative branch and placing it into the hands of one single individual.
No single person should ever have the power to drag over 300 million Americans into armed conflict without consulting Congress. That is not a matter of political opinion or partisan disagreement. That is a fundamental inexcusable violation of the constitutional order that has governed this nation for over two centuries.
And I rise today in the name of government of the people, by the people, for the people. I rise today because our country is nearing a moment of decision. I rise because we are at the intersection of democracy and autocracy. I rise to announce that at this moment in time I have filed HRES 537.
HRE 537 is a privileged resolution. HRE 537 has been filed because I believe that the president of the United States has committed an impeachable act. HRES 57 addresses abuse of presidential powers by disregarding the separation of powers.
These are not vague expressions of concern. These are not dramatic flourishes carefully crafted to generate headlines and social media attention. These are specific, documented, legally framed charges written in language the founding fathers themselves would have recognized instantly. They describe exactly what the impeachment power was designed to address from the very beginning. The precise circumstances that James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the other brilliant architects of the Constitution envisioned when they carefully crafted this mechanism for removing a president who had become a direct and serious threat to the republic.
The president now stands accused by his own colleagues inside the people's house of tyranny, of deliberately pushing this nation toward authoritarianism, of actively and systematically working to dissolve the very republic. He raised his right hand and swore a solemn oath to preserve and protect. That is not hyperbole. That is not campaign trail rhetoric. That is the formal official language of impeachment resolutions filed by sitting members of the United States Congress.
The Relentless Accountability Effort
And at the center of this relentless accountability effort stands Representative Al Green filing impeachment resolution after impeachment resolution throughout this year with an iron determination that absolutely refuses to be discouraged, deflated, or broken by procedural defeat after procedural defeat.
I will bring articles of impeachment against the president of the United States of America for taking our military to war against Venezuela, for doing it based upon some theory that in and of itself does not align with the Constitution. Some theory that if you have an indictment, an indictment, you can now send in the police or the Justice Department and various officers associated. You can send them in to do something in this case to seize the president of a country and use the military to back them up.
And I marvel at how people will say, "Well, they did it in Panama. If we did it in Panama, we can do it here." Representative Green introduced his comprehensive articles in the spring, a sweeping seven-count indictment of presidential misconduct that reads like a seasoned prosecutor's closing argument against the entire Trump presidency.
Each article targets a specific, clearly defined category of alleged abuse. Each one is firmly grounded in documented conduct rather than partisan anger or political point scoring and each one carries the full undeniable weight of a formal congressional accusation. Representative Shri Hanadar has stated plainly and without hesitation that Trump has repeatedly demonstrated he is unfit to serve as president and that he represents a clear and present danger to the nation's constitution. Thanodar points directly to unlawful deportations, reckless and damaging tariff policies, and the Department of Justice's deliberate and systematic dismantling of federal agencies as core pieces of his supporting evidence. These are not vague or abstract criticisms tossed out for political effect. These are specific, detailed allegations of
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