Pelosi push to oust Trump to start with 25th Amendment legislation, then impeachment

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s effort to oust President Trump during his final week in office will be taking a two-pronged approach, first passing legislation trying to force the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and then advancing to impeachment proceedings.

Pelosi made her plans known Sunday in a letter to colleagues, even as Republicans mounted a defense behind the scenes to stop the Trump ouster.

"In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both," she wrote.

"The horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action,” she added.

Pelosi explained that the first resolution calls on Vice President Mike Pence "to convene and mobilize the Cabinet to activate the 25th Amendment to declare the President incapable of executing the duties of his office” and install Pence is acting president.

Neither Pence nor any significant number of cabinet members is expected to take the action, meaning Pelosi would proceed to impeachment proceedings later in the week under the terms of her letter.