Rep. Norma Torres, a Democrat from California, said during a debate of the House Rules Committee today that “there should be no question” that Vice President Mike Pence should invoke the 25th Amendment and remove President Trump from office.
Torres said she was among the lawmakers trapped in the balcony of the House chamber during the Jan. 6 attack against the Capitol.
“I was one of 12 trapped in the House gallery. I heard the shot being fired. I saw the smoke from the tear gas having been deployed, and I watched one officer with no protective equipment face a raging mob just outside the chamber. He crawled across the entire length of that balcony. I was in the last group to be evacuated. We ran down the halls, stairs, near a mob that was being held on the ground at gunpoint. I sheltered for four to five hours in a room that was packed shoulder to shoulder with people,” Torres described.
Torres said that when she was finally evacuated from the Capitol at 3 p.m. ET, and “was running for my life,” she received a call from her son.
“I answered my phone to my son, Christopher. The call lasted 27 seconds. All I could say, was sweetheart, I’m okay. I’m running for my life. And I hung up,” Torres said.
The lawmaker also called on her colleague’s to support Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin’s resolution calling on Pence “to immediately use his powers under section 4 of the 25th Amendment to convene and mobilize the principal officers of the executive departments in the Cabinet to declare what is obvious to a horrified nation.”
“I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in supporting this resolution, but most of all, I urge Vice President Pence to do the right thing,” Torres said.
“The Raskin resolution is not a political document, it takes no partisan position. And anyone who says otherwise is being irresponsible and is continuing to advance a hateful agenda of Donald Trump,” she continued.
Torres also sent a message to Trump: “How dare you! How dare you incite a mob to stop the final step in certifying our election simply because they want to pick and choose whose vote should count and whose vote should not count.”
Hear her describe the emotional phone call:
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