US Capitol siege: Officials 'discuss 25th amendment to remove Donald Trump' as Republicans turn backs on president

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A wave of top officials quit the White House on Wednesday, turning their backs on Donald Trump hours after the US Capitol was stormed by his supporters.

Incited by the US president, violent protesters broke into the Capitol building in an attempt to overthrow the result of the November election.

The US media reported that Mr Trump's Cabinet secretaries were discussing invoking the 25th amendment to remove the president. The amendment theoretically allows for the removal of a president who is incapacitated or unwilling to perform their duties.

Invoking it would require Vice President Mike Pence to lead the Cabinet in a vote on removing Mr Trump. CNN said that unnamed Republican leaders revealed that the 25th amendment had been discussed, saying they had described Trump as "out of control."

Seventeen Democratic congressmen signed a letter on Wednesday night calling on Mr Pence to enact the amendment and remove Mr Trump.

On Thursday afternoon, a Republican U.S. Representative, Adam Kinzinger,  joined calls for the 25th Amendment to be invoked.

"All indications are that the president has become unmoored, not just from his duty or even his oath, but from reality itself," Mr Kinzinger said in a video he posted on Twitter.

Mr Kingzinger said he was acting alone but would not be surprised if other Republicans followed him.

A number of White House staff, including Sarah Matthews, the deputy press secretary, and Stephanie Grisham, Melania Trump's chief of staff, resigned effective immediately. It was also reported on Wednesday evening that Chris Liddell, the president's deputy chief of staff, Matt Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser, and Rickie Niceta, the White House social secretary, have quit.

It came shortly after former US president George W Bush denounced some of his fellow Republicans for fuelling the "insurrection" at the US Capitol, likening the situation to a "banana republic" and attacking Mr Trump for spreading falsehoods.

Mr Trump and some senior Republicans have frequently repeated baseless and disproved allegations of voter fraud, even as Congress met on Wednesday to certify the election results.

In an extraordinary statement from the only living former Republican president, Mr Bush said: "I am appalled by the reckless behaviour of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions and our law enforcement."

"This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic - not our democratic republic".

Read more: Who is Jake Angeli, the ‘QAnon shaman’ from Arizona at the heart of the Capitol riots?

Mr Bush led a number of Republicans who condemned the president as a rift in the party was ripped apart after Wednesday's chaotic scenes in Washington.

Senator Mitt Romney criticised Mr Trump, saying the House was meeting due to "a selfish man's injured pride and the outrage of his supporters whom he has deliberately misinformed for the past two months and stirred to action".

Accusing Mr Trump of enabling "an unprecedented attack against our democracy", Mr Romney said: "What happened here today was an insurrection, incited by the President of the United States."

Jim Mattis, Mr Trump's former secretary of defence, said the president "will deservedly be left a man without a country" after his government worked to "destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens."

He added: "Our Constitution and our Republic will overcome this stain."

In a stinging attack on the Republican party, Mr Mattis said that the assault on the Capitol was "fomented by Mr Trump", who has been "enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice".

Liz Cheney, the House Republican Conference Chair, also blamed Mr Trump for the riots at the Capitol, saying the president “lit the flame” that ignited the mob.

“There’s no question the president formed the mob, the president incited the mob, the president addressed the mob. He lit the flame,” the third-highest-ranking House Republican said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Mike Pence, the vice-president, had defied Mr Trump's pleas to block the results of the election, publicly breaking with the president.

Moments later, Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader in the Senate, rebuked Mr Trump's false claims of election fraud at the hearing to confirm the results.

Mr McConnell said: "President Trump claims the election was stolen. Nothing before us proves illegality anywhere near the massive scale that would have tipped the entire election.

"If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side then our democracy would enter a death spiral."

It came after Republicans began to blame Mr Trump for the Senate defeats in Georgia, after the Democrats claimed two seats in a run-off vote to win a vital majority in the Senate.

Some in Mr Trump's party accused him of putting off voters with his claims of electoral fraud.

Josh Holmes, the former chief of staff to Mr McConnell, was among those to blame Mr Trump.

Read more: A timeline of what happened when US Capitol riots unfolded

Former president Barack Obama said that history will rightly remember the violence at the Capitol as a moment of great dishonour and shame for America.

In a statement, Mr Obama said the violence was "incited by a sitting president" who baselessly lied about the outcome of the presidential election. He has convinced his supporters of a false claim, that he lost the election to President-elect Joe Biden only because Democrats cheated.

Mr Obama said it should not have come as a surprise, and that for two months "a political party and its accompanying media ecosystem has too often been unwilling to tell their followers the truth."

He said: "Their fantasy narrative has spiraled further and further from reality, and it builds upon years of sown resentments. Now we're seeing the consequences, whipped up into a violent crescendo."

Bill Clinton added that the attack had been fueled by "four years of poison politics" and deliberate misinformation.