WILMINGTON, Del. — President-elect Joe Biden says that President Donald Trump isn\u2019t \u201cfit for the job,\u201d but he repeatedly refused to endorse growing Democratic calls to impeach him a second time.<\/p>\n
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to members of her chamber that lawmakers could move as early as next week to impeach Trump for inciting a violent mob that overran the U.S. Capitol if the president didn\u2019t \u201cimmediately\u201d resign. Pelosi and Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer also have called on Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to force Trump from office — a process for stripping the president of his post and installing the vice president to take over.<\/p>\n
Addressing reporters in his home state of Delaware after an event Friday introducing some of his Cabinet choices, Biden noted that a key reason he ran for president was because he\u2019d \u201cthought for a long, long time that President Trump wasn\u2019t fit for the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been saying for now, well, over a year, he\u2019s not fit to serve,\u201d Biden said. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the most incompetent presidents in the history of the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he refused to back efforts to remove Trump from the White House and insisted that impeachment was up to Congress. Instead, Biden said he was focused on the start of his own administration on Jan. 20, and he said his top three priorities are beating back the coronavirus, distributing vaccines fairly and equitably, and reviving the struggling economy.<\/p>\n
His comments laid bare the political balance Biden has worked to strike in the months since winning the presidential election. He has continued to sharply criticize Trump and nearly every facet of his administration but also worked to keep the public\u2019s attention focused on what the new administration will do rather than indulging recriminations against the last one.<\/p>\n
Biden nonetheless conceded that Trump \u201cexceeded my worst notions about him. He\u2019s been an embarrassment\u201d and likened the \u201cdamage done to our reputation around the world\u201d to \u201ctin horn dictatorships.\u201d The president-elect also suggested that a key hurdle to removing Trump was that he has less than two weeks remaining in his term.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we were six months out, we should be doing everything to get him out of office. Impeaching him again, trying to evoke the 25th Amendment, whatever it took,\u201d Biden said. \u201cBut I am focused now on us taking control as president and vice president on the 20th and to get our agenda moving as quickly as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump would be the only president to be impeached twice. The House impeached him in late 2019, but the Republican-led Senate acquitted him. Removal from office could also prevent Trump from running for president in 2024, or ever holding the presidency again.<\/p>\n
Most Democrats, and many Republicans, put the blame squarely on Trump after hundreds of rioters broke into the Capitol on Wednesday and caused destruction and mass evacuations. The president had urged his supporters to protest as Congress was counting the electoral votes that confirmed Biden\u2019s win. Five people died, including a Capitol Police officer.<\/p>\n
Biden called what happened a \u201cgod-awful debacle\u201d and said it had \u201cthe active encouragement of the president of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president-elect\u2019s comments came hours after Trump tweeted that he planned to skip Biden\u2019s inauguration, becoming the first president in more than 150 years — and just the fourth in U.S. history \u2014 to do so. Biden said he\u2019d be \u201chonored\u201d to have Pence at the swearing-in, but didn\u2019t feel the same way about Trump.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s \u201cone of the few things he and I have ever agreed on,\u201d Biden said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good thing, him not showing up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also Friday, Biden called on the Senate — which will be under narrow Democratic control thanks to a pair of runoff election victories in Georgia \u2014 to confirm his Cabinet choices \u201cpromptly and fairly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven what our country\u2019s been through the last few days,\u201d Biden said, \u201cthey should be confirmed as close to Jan 20 as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n