Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

“Whether by his Cabinet or Congress, the president must be removed from office,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “We are playing with the brink.”

US President Donald Trump’s whiplash-inducing announcement late Tuesday of a two-week ceasefire with Iran did nothing to diminish calls for his removal from office, with Democratic lawmakers arguing that the president’s genocidal threat earlier in the day—and his decision to launch the illegal war in the first place—cannot be walked back.

“The president has threatened a genocide against the Iranian people, and is continuing to leverage that threat,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said in a statement after the deal was announced. “He has launched a massive war of enormous risk and of catastrophic consequence without reason, rationale, nor congressional authorization—which is as clear a violation of the Constitution as any.”

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“Each day this goes on, the risk and criminality of these actions escalate for our nation and the world,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “We cannot risk the world nor the wellbeing of our nation any longer… Whether by his Cabinet or Congress, the president must be removed from office. We are playing with the brink.”

Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), one of two Iranian Americans in Congress, said while she was “momentarily relieved” by news of the ceasefire, “this doesn’t change anything.”

“Trump threatened genocide and war crimes against Iranians this morning,” Ansari wrote. “His statements that ‘a whole civilization will die’ and that he’ll take Iran ‘back to the stone ages’ confirm that he is mentally unstable, unhinged, and unfit for office or any position of authority.”

Ansari called for the removal of both Trump and Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth, the administration’s leading cheerleader for the war. The Arizona Democrat said earlier this week that she would soon introduce articles of impeachment against Hegseth for “repeated war crimes” in Iran, including the deadly bombing of an elementary school on the first day of the war.

“Thousands of civilians have been tragically killed across the region, American servicemembers have died and suffered unnecessarily, and millions are displaced from Lebanon to the Gulf,” Ansari said Tuesday. “Trump and Pete Hegseth have already committed explicit war crimes by bombing schools, hospitals, bridges, and water desalination plants… Whether through impeachment or by invoking the 25th Amendment, it is far past time Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are removed from office.”

According to a tally by Axios, at least 85 House Democrats have called for Trump’s removal via the 25th Amendment, which gives the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet—or a majority of a body established by Congress—the ability to declare the president unable to perform his duties and remove him from office.

Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) announced Tuesday that he filed new articles of impeachment against Trump after the president’s threat to wipe out the “whole civilization” of Iran.

“He’s becoming more unstable by the day. His profane and sacrilegious Easter Sunday and subsequent threats, including ‘a whole civilization will die’ and ‘open the Strait…or you’ll be living in hell,’ not only foreshadow war crimes, but put our security at risk,” Larson said in a statement. “People across my district know he is unfit to lead and are calling for impeachment. While Republicans in the majority have so far failed to uphold their constitutional responsibility to initiate impeachment proceedings, that does not absolve others of their duty.”

The House and Senate, both controlled by a Republican Party whose ranks are packed with Trump sycophants unwilling to restrain him, are currently on spring recess and aren’t scheduled to return to Washington until next week.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) called for both chambers to reconvene immediately to “stop this war and remove Donald Trump.”

“I’m glad there is a reported ceasefire deal with Iran. But we shouldn’t be in this illegal war in the first place,” said Markey. “And Donald Trump can’t simply threaten war crimes with impunity.”

Democratic leaders, who have faced backlash for slowwalking a new vote on a resolution aimed at forcing an end to the Iran war, vowed to move ahead with a War Powers vote when lawmakers return from recess.

“We need a permanent end to Donald Trump’s reckless war of choice, which is why House Democrats have demanded that Speaker Mike Johnson immediately reconvene the House back into session so we can move a War Powers Resolution that will end this conflict permanently,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said in an appearance on CNN late Tuesday.

“Assuming it doesn’t happen this week, we’ll go back into session next week and we will present a War Powers Resolution as soon as it becomes available to us to do so as a matter of privilege on the House floor,” said Jeffries. “All we need are a handful of Republicans to join us.”

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).