Washington, DC, United States of America

An increasingly isolated President Donald Trump sought on Friday to stave off a new drive to impeach him, two days after his supporters stormed the US Capitol in an assault on American democracy.

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Trump quite apparently exhorted thousands of supporters to march on the Capitol as Congress met to certify his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden, prompting chaos in which crowds breached the building, forced the evacuation of both chambers and left a police officer and four others dead in their wake.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday that if Trump did not resign, she had instructed the House Rules Committee to move ahead with a motion for impeachment and legislation on the US Constitution's 25th Amendment, which provides for removal of a president who is unable to discharge his official duties.

Democrats, who said a House vote on impeachment could come next week, hope the impeachment threat will intensify pressure on Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment before Trump's term ends in less than two weeks.

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"Impeaching President Donald Trump with 12 days remaining in his presidency would only serve to further divide the country," said White House spokesman Judd Deere.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Thursday and Friday found 57 per cent of Americans want Trump to be removed immediately from office following the violence. Nearly 70 per cent also disapproved of Trump's actions in the run-up to the Capitol rampage.

Trump's role in encouraging Wednesday's chaos has opened a growing rift within the Republican Party too.

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Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, a frequent Trump critic, told CBS News he would "definitely consider" impeachment because the president "disregarded his oath of office."

'I WANT HIM OUT'

Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said Friday Trump should resign immediately and that if the party cannot separate itself from him, she is not certain she has a future with it.

"I want him to resign. I want him out. He has caused enough damage," the Alaska Senator told the Anchorage Daily News.

It is unclear whether lawmakers would be able to remove Trump from office, as any impeachment would prompt a trial in the Senate, where his fellow Republicans still hold power and two-thirds of the 100 members must vote to convict for his removal.

Articles of impeachment, which are formal charges of misconduct, have been crafted by Democratic Representatives David Cicilline, Ted Lieu and Jamie Raskin.

A copy circulating among members of Congress charges Trump with "inciting violence against the government of the United States" in a bid to overturn his loss to Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

Pelosi said she had spoken with the nation's top general, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, about preventing Trump from initiating military hostilities or launching a nuclear weapon.

Pelosi told members on a Democratic conference call that she had gotten assurances from Milley that there are safeguards in place.

"Sadly the person that's running executive branch is a deranged, unhinged, dangerous president of the United States," she said in an excerpt of an interview on CBS's "60 Minutes" programme.

(with inputs)