Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the historically conservative-leaning National Association of Manufacturers, said in a strongly worded statement today that Vice President Mike Pence, “who was evacuated from the Capitol, should seriously consider working with the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to preserve democracy.”
The 25th amendment details the procedures for the vice president and principal leaders of Congress to declare that the president is unfit to serve. In the event of such a declaration in writing, the vice president “shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”
Pence and other members of Congress were taken to a secure area today after a throng of Trump supporters knocked down police barricades and stormed the U.S. Capitol, pushing past police, entering the Senate chamber and breaking windows and vandalizing Congress members' evacuated offices. This occurred in the midst of the Electoral College’s confirmation of President-Elect Joe Biden as the next president. Biden’s inauguration is scheduled for January 20.
“This is a very sad day for our nation and our democracy,” Timmons stated in a press release headlined “Manufacturers Call on Armed Thugs to Cease Violence at Capitol.” He further stated, “This is not how this great nation, nor responsible citizens handle elections or our differences."
Timmons called “baseless” Trump’s claim that the results of the 2020 presidential election were “fraudulent.”
“Throughout this whole disgusting episode,” the statement went on to say, “Trump has been cheered on by members of his own party, adding fuel to the distrust that has enflamed violent anger. This is not law and order. This is chaos. It is mob rule.”
NAM was, at least publicly, supportive of Trump during his early years in office. Timmons and other NAM leadership visited the White House for a Manufacturers Roundtable with Trump in March 17. After Trump’s first year in office, Timmons praised him for making 2017 “The Year of the Manufacturer with his unrelenting focus on improving the lives of manufacturing workers” and expected 2018 to be another “banner year.”
In February, NAM, which represents manufacturing employers, awarded Trump’s daughter Ivanka with its very first Alexander Hamilton Award for “extraordinary support of manufacturing in America.” Timmons praised “her work bringing together leaders of industry, government and academia.”
