MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US business leaders want Vice-president Pence and the cabinet to remove Trump from office

JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon said, ”Our elected leaders have a responsibility to call for an end to the violence, accept the results”

US business leaders denounced president Donald Trump for inciting supporters who mobbed the US Capitol, with the head of the National Association of Manufacturers saying Vice-President Mike Pence should “seriously consider” working with the Cabinet to remove the president from office.

Mr Jay Timmons, head of the lobbying group that backed many of Mr Trump's initiatives, raised the prospect of invoking the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution to cut short Trump's remaining days in office. President-elect Joe Biden is to be sworn into office on January 20.

“Throughout this whole disgusting episode, Trump has been cheered on by members of his own party, adding fuel to the distrust that has inflamed violent anger,” Mr Timmons said in a statement on Wednesday.

“This is not law and order. This is chaos. It is mob rule. It is dangerous. This is sedition and should be treated as such.”

The 25th Amendment outlines a process in which a president “who is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” can be removed and replaced by the vice-president.

Other business groups and leaders condemned the rioting, as law enforcement regained control of the Capitol on Wednesday evening.

JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon called for violence at the Capitol to end.

Although he didn't single out Mr Trump by name, he said, “Our elected leaders have a responsibility to call for an end to the violence, accept the results and, as our democracy has for hundreds of years, support the peaceful transition of power.”

Similarly, Mr Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock Inc, condemned “in the strongest possible terms the violence at our Capitol today.”

“The peaceful transfer of power is the foundation of our democracy,” Mr Fink said in a statement. “We are who we are as a nation because of our democratic institutions and process.”

Wells Fargo & Co CEO Charles Scharf urged “an immediate end to this violence. We must embark on the peaceful transition of power to President-elect Biden, a hallmark of our republic,” he said in a statement.

The Business Roundtable, a lobbying group for top chief executives, called on Mr Trump and “all relevant officials to put an end to the chaos and to facilitate the peaceful transition of power.”

“The chaos unfolding in the nation's capital is the result of unlawful efforts to overturn the legitimate results of a democratic election,” the group said. “The country deserves better.”

Mr Tom Donohue, CEO of the powerful US Chamber of Commerce, said Congress should “gather again this evening to conclude their Constitutional responsibility to accept the report of the Electoral College.”

Mike Pence who was escorted out of the building tweeted that “The violence and destruction taking place at the US Capitol Must Stop and it Must Stop Now.”