Hi, this is Mason Cash. I'm originally from Gisborne, New Zealand. I'm now sitting in this parking lot of citizenship and immigration services in Orlando, Florida, after just having completed the ceremony and other religions to become a citizen of the United States.

This podcast was recorded at 207 PM on Monday, the 11th of January 2021.

Some things may have changed by the time we hear this. Enjoy the show.

What a time to become a citizen of the United States.

I love when people celebrate such big things with us. That's really heartwarming.

Congratulations. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics podcast. I'm Tamar Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Kelsey Snell, I cover Congress.

And I'm Mara Lias and National Political Correspondent.

The House of Representatives is forging ahead with plans to try to remove President Trump from office.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to pass by unanimous consent, a resolution asking the Vice President and Cabinet to declare him unfit to serve and to remove him via the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.

That didn't work because a Republican Congressman objected and also there's no indication PINC is moving in that direction.

So Kelsey, what now?

Well, first we're going to go through a little bit of the House trying to drive home the point that they tried. The House is going to vote on that resolution.

We expect some time tomorrow House Speaker Pelosi told Democrats in the letter over the weekend that she was going to give PENC a 24 hour essentially an ultimatum saying you have 24 hours now to either do the 25th or remove ahead with a vote telling you to do the 25th.

And then we'll vote on impeachment, which that may seem like a lot of steps. It may seem like overly complicated, but what Democrats really want to do is they want to be able to say that they demonstrated that they take the process of impeachment seriously and that they gave the administration every opportunity possible before they move to that step of Congress taking steps to remove the president.

But more to be clear, PENC has been radio silent except for over the weekend an aid indicated that he is planning to attend Joe Biden's inauguration.

Yes, impeachment is almost like censure. It's the only recourse the House has for what they feel is a president who violated the article of impeachment that they're drawing up, which is that he willfully incited violent insurrection against the US government.

There's nothing else they can do if they don't think censure is sufficient, all they can do is impeach. They know he won't be removed, convicted and removed by the Senate.

He's also only has about 10 days left in office, but this is the only way they see to hold him accountable.

And it's not just about holding him accountable in the sense that they feel like they have to do it, you know, to send a message to voters.

I've talked to a lot of genuinely angry and, you know, just hurt and disturbed and traumatized members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats who feel like they have to do something from, you know, from that perspective as well of expressing that Congress will stand up to the president.

Do you think Republicans will join them, Kelsey?

We do know that Democrats say they are aware of some Republicans who plan to vote for that article. We don't know how many. We know that there aren't any Republican co-sponsors of the impeachment resolution.

...