By James Underwood, ’23.
U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers, whose district includes Upper Arlington, sharply rebuked President Donald Trump on Wednesday in a televised interview with Spectrum News, saying “I was very disappointed in the president.”
Stivers also indicated an openness to seeing Trump removed from office, telling the network, “The Cabinet decides on the 25th Amendment, and if the Cabinet decided to [invoke it], I would not oppose it.”
Stivers emphasized, however, that he opposed impeachment.
“I do not believe that an impeachment can happen in 13 days. Plus, I don’t think it would give the President time enough to mount a meaningful defense. So that is a little silly at this point,” he said.
In a statement released by his office, Stivers affirmed his support for the election results, writing, “I do not believe that it is within Congress’s authority to overturn the results that have been independently certified by the states.”
A number of Republican lawmakers have condemned the storming of the U.S. Capitol and to a lesser extent President Trump’s role in it. Far fewer, however, have gone so far as to express openness for removal from office, as Stivers now has. Only one GOP lawmaker, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, has explicitly supported removing Trump from office in response to recent events.
Beyond the House of Representatives, Ohio’s U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, has announced support for removal.
“I am calling on the cabinet and vice president to immediately invoke the 25th Amendment,” he said in a tweet.
Brown’s counterpart, Republican Rob Portman, has not announced any such support, though he has condemned the storming and other efforts to overturn the election.