The siege of the U.S. Capitol by rebel supporters of President Trump has renewed the conversation about an extreme remedy: declaring that the president is unable to do his job and removing him from office under the 25th Amendment.
It is not the first time that detractors have sought the removal of Trump by invoking the amendment. Early in the president’s term, MP Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) tabled a resolution urging Trump to seek a medical and psychiatric assessment to determine his suitability for the post, keeping an eye on the law governing presidential succession.
The proposal came to nothing.
Many Democrats resumed the case on Wednesday after a pro-Trump crowd, instigated by the president, briefly invaded the Capitol and interrupted Joe Biden’s victory in the November elections. An unlikely ally, National Assn. from the manufacturers, echoed the call for Trump’s dismissal less than two weeks before the end of his term, urging Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment as a way to “preserve democracy”.
People take shelter in the Chamber gallery while a crowd tries to break into the Chamber chamber on the US Capitol on Wednesday.
(Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)
“This is not law and order. This is chaos. It’s the mafia rule. It’s dangerous. This is sedition and should be treated as such, ”said the association’s president, Jay Timmons, in a statement.
Under the amendment, which addresses the issue of presidential disability as well as succession, the vice president and the majority of the president’s office may declare the president “unable to exercise the powers and duties of his office”, notifying the leaders of the Chamber and Senate. At that point, the vice president takes over the duties of the president.
But it’s not that simple: Trump would have to agree, a scenario that seems implausible, to say the least.
If the vice president and the Cabinet declare the president incapacitated, he can claim his powers by writing to legislative leaders and declaring his ability to do the job. If the vice president and Cabinet members object, the matter will be referred to Congress, which has 21 days to deliberate. It would take a two-thirds vote in both chambers to oust the president from his powers, once and for all.
Trump’s term is set to expire at noon, Eastern Standard Time, on January 20.
The Constitution makes it clear that the vice president is next in line with the president. But there were some doubts about exactly how it worked.
In 1955, after a heart attack and other illnesses, President Eisenhower was concerned with the transfer of power if he were temporarily disabled, especially due to hasty relations with the Soviet Union. He made an informal agreement with his vice president, Richard Nixon, in case he needed to temporarily relinquish power.
After the assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963, Congress passed the 25th Amendment in July 1965. It was ratified in February 1967.
The amendment also establishes how to replace a vice president. The first use of the amendment came in 1973, when President Nixon chose Representative Gerald R. Ford of Michigan to fill the vacancy after Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in October 1973. Ford, in turn, became president when Nixon resigned in August 1974. Ford then chose former New York governor Nelson Rockefeller as his vice president.
In 1987, advisers to President Reagan considered invoking the amendment when concerns grew over his apathetic and impartial behavior during his second term. The prospect was soon dismissed, however, when chief of staff Howard Baker deemed Reagan fit to serve.
Separately, on three occasions, Reagan and President George W. Bush voluntarily transferred power to their vice presidents during surgery under general anesthesia. Each claimed the presidency’s powers with little warning or interruption of government operations.
In another move to hold Trump accountable, Democratic MP Ilhan Omar of Minnesota said on Wednesday that he was writing new articles of presidential impeachment.
“We cannot allow him to remain in office,” she wrote on Twitter, “it is a matter of preserving our Republic and we must fulfill our oath.”
Trump was accused by the Democratic-led House of Representatives in December 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress due to efforts to pressure the Ukrainian chief to dig up Biden’s dirt before the 2020 campaign. The president was acquitted a month later by the Senate governed by the Republican Party.