CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As the calls continue to mount for President Donald Trump to resign or be removed from office, some of the voices in the chorus are coming from leaders in the Carolinas.
After the violent insurrection at the Capitol Wednesday, in the aftermath, many said the blood is on the President’s hands.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper wrote in a late afternoon tweet Thursday:
“This president has betrayed our country and is therefore unfit to lead it. He should resign or be removed from office.”
Congresswoman Alma Adams said Trump has gone unchecked for four years. She believes his removal would send a long-overdue message.
“I wish we could impeach him right now! But there’s no time,” she said, lending her support to the group seeking the invocation of the 25th amendment.
Newly elected Congresswoman Kathy Manning called the President “unfit.”
Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Julie Eiselt wrote in a public Facebook post she believes other GOP leaders are complicit as well.
“They sold their soul to the devil and the devil is fiddling,” she said. “Now, for the sake of America’s safety, world nuclear safety, invoke the 25 Amendment Now.”
One of the President’s staunches supporters Lindsey Graham said he does not believe it appropriate to invoke the 25th Amendment at this time.
“I’m looking for a peaceful transfer of power,” Graham said.
Graham said if anything else happens before the Biden administration takes over, all options would be on the table.
Graham called the mob of rioters “domestic terrorists” and he believed “lethal force” should have been used by authorities.
“The President needs to understand that his actions were the problem, not the solution,” Graham said.
Other Carolina lawmakers including Sen. Thom Tillis and Rep. Dan Bishop condemned the violence but did not condemn the President. North Carolina’s senior Senator, Republican Richard Burr said “the President bears responsibility for [the] events,” but he stopped short of calling for action to be taken against Trump.
Meanwhile, hundreds of political science professors from across the country, including more than a dozen from North and South Carolina schools penned a letter calling for the 25th Amendment to be invoked.
“We who study American politics and government recognize now is the time to let people know this is Unamerican this is not what we intend for our democratic republic,” said Catawba College Professor Michael Bitzer.
Bitzer has been a student or teacher of politics for 30 years. He said the violent insurrection at the Capitol is one of the darkest days in American History. He places the blame on President Trump.
“The President laid the groundwork, the President encouraged them, march on the Capitol, the President is responsible,” he said. “We have never had a President, a commander in chief, someone who leads this country, instigate open rebellion and insurrection against his own government, against his own nation.”