Biden won’t back House Democrats’ move to impeach Trump in wake of Capitol riots

‘He’s welcome,' president-elect says of Vice President Mike Pence

President-elect Joe Biden is not backing the calls to impeach President Donald Trump for a second time. Notably, however, he did not try dissuading his fellow Democrats from making the riot instigator the first US president to ever be impeached twice.

‘What the Congress decides to do is for them to decide,” Mr Biden said. “But I’m going to have to and they’re going to have to be ready to hit the ground running because we Kamala [Harris] and I are sworn in we’re going to be introducing significant legislation to deal with the virus, to deal with the economy and to deal with economic growth.”

Notably, however, he did not try dissuading his fellow Democrats from making the riot instigator the first US president to ever be impeached twice.

“I thought for a long long time that President Trump wasn’t fit to hold that job,” he said after introducing more members of his incoming economic team. “That’s why I ran.”

Asked pointedly if Mr Trump should be removed from office, Mr Biden sidestepped when answering.

“He is not fit to serve. He is one of the most incompetent presidents,” he said. “What happens with … 13 days left to go? I think that what 81m people stood up and said, ‘It’s time for him to go' … The quickest way for that to happen is for us to be sworn in on the 20th.”

He again said anything that happens before then is “up to the Congress”.

“He has exceeded even my worst notions about him. He’s been an embarrassment to the country,” Mr Biden said, adding that if Mr Trump had six months left in his term, officials should do anything they had to in order to remove Mr Trump.

The incoming president said the Justice Department would decide if and whom to charge over their roles in the deadly riot, claiming he would not tell Attorney General-designate Merrick Garland whom to prosecute.