Calls to President Trump
Donald TrumpTrump acknowledges the end of the presidency after Congress certifies Biden’s victory Congress affirms Biden’s victory after protesters terrorize Third Capitol House Legislator tests positive for COVID-19 this week MOREThe removal of under the 25th Amendment was highest on Thursday in response to the deadly attack by the crowd on Capitol Hill by pro-Trump protesters.
The rarely invoked 1967 amendment to the Constitution is the primary means of ensuring that the government remains in operation if an incumbent president is found unable to perform his duties during his term.
Trump’s remaining time in the White House is reduced to a matter of days, with the president-elect Joe Biden
Joe BidenTrump acknowledges the end of the presidency after Congress certifies Biden’s victory Congress claims Biden’s victory after protesters terrorized the Capitol See how the front pages of newspapers around the world looked after crowds invaded the Capitol MOREopening scheduled for January 20. But the alarm over the prospect that Trump could incite more violence or plunge the country into a national security crisis during that brief period led to a closer look at the so-called “involuntary removal mechanism” of the amendment
Although the 25th Amendment has been invoked several times as a way to temporarily transfer power to a vice president while a president undergoes a medical procedure like surgery, it has never been used to remove a president from office against his will.
On Thursday afternoon, just 24 hours after the demonstrators stormed the Capitol, the minority leader in the Senate Charles Schumer
Chuck SchumerCongress claims Biden’s victory after protesters terrorized Capitol Hill Cori Bush introduces legislation to sanction, remove all House members who supported election challenges Pelosi and Schumer call Trump to demand that all protesters leave Capitol MORE (DN.Y.) and speaker Nancy Pelosi
Nancy PelosiCongress claims Biden’s victory after protesters terrorize Capitol Third House legislator positive test for COVID-19 this week. West Virginia lawmaker has sex live joining the Capitol crowd (D-Calif.) Both embraced the use of the constitutional mechanism to bring a premature end to Trump’s presidency. Democratic leaders pushed for the Trump Cabinet to remove him, or failing that, for Congress to consider doing so through impeachment.
“What happened yesterday at the United States Capitol was an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president,” said Schumer in a statement. “This president should not be in office for another day.”
Some Republicans joined the Democrats’ chorus in calling for the 25th amendment to be invoked.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger
Adam Daniel Kinzinger Late-night hosts announce plans to discuss Capitol violence The Memorandum: Trump chaos arrives at Capitol Hill Trump tells protesters to ‘go home’ while fueling electoral fury MORE (Ill.) On Thursday, he became the first Republican legislator to call for the presidential removal mechanism from the Constitution, placing the blame for Wednesday’s insurrection at the feet of the president.
“Here is the truth: the president caused this. The president is not fit and the president is not well. And the president must now relinquish control of the executive branch voluntarily or involuntarily,” said Kinzinger in a videotaped statement. “It is time to invoke the 25th Amendment and end this nightmare.”
Republican support for the effort came from beyond Washington as well.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R) said on Thursday that the United States would be “better off” if Trump resigned or was removed from office to allow Vice President Pence to serve the last days of the president’s term.
The provision of involuntary removal – section 4 of the amendment – authorizes the vice president and the majority of Cabinet members to declare a president “unable to exercise the powers and duties of his office”. If used successfully against Trump, it would elevate Pence to the position of interim president.
But the statute also allows an incumbent president to challenge his cabinet’s determination – a complicating factor that has caused even some of Trump’s fiercest critics to reject the approach as impractical, given the short term.
To retake the reins of power, Trump would only need to declare to congressional leaders that he is capable of doing so. To overturn Trump’s challenge, the Cabinet would again have to declare him unfit, only this time with the support of a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate.
Some of Trump’s staunchest opponents say it is absurd to think that such a complicated process could succeed in lifting Trump out of his power before Inauguration Day. John Bolton
John BoltonFive foreign policy plums ripe for Biden’s choice Trump calls Bolton “one of the most stupid people in Washington” after a former adviser reviews the martial law report Trump minimizes the impact of the hack, questions whether Russia involved MORE, Trump’s former national security adviser who has become critical, said that the attempt to remove Trump at this advanced stage could worsen the country’s problems rather than improve.
“Section Four of the 25th Amendment, which I think is the flavor of the day, is probably the worst written provision in the Constitution,” Bolton told The Hill. “It’s never been used before, and the idea that you’re going to use it, try to trigger it now for the first time and risk having two presidents at the same time, I just think it’s a silly mission. “
The amendment owes its seemingly esoteric design to its historical roots, which first emerged after the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. His shocking death and the sense of national vulnerability it caused raised concerns about the adequacy of the country’s contingency planning.
The 25th Amendment to the 25th Amendment between the Executive Branch and Congress aims to achieve a smooth transition of power in the event that a President becomes physically disabled and unable to fulfill his presidential functions.
“These proposals were influenced by the feeling, at the time, that if Kennedy had lived, the country would have to deal with the problem of presidential disability in a tragic setting,” wrote John D. Feerick, a law professor at Fordham University and a scholar. of the 25th Amendment.
In that spirit, a provision of the amendment allows the president, on his own initiative, to transfer power to the vice president on a temporary basis. This happened twice during the presidency of George W. Bush, who briefly transferred authority to Vice President Dick Cheney while he underwent colonoscopy procedures. Bush resumed his powers shortly thereafter.
According to legal experts, however, the authors of the amendment intentionally left the text vague to allow for flexibility, including invoking the amendment in cases where a president is simply unable to fulfill his official duties.
Brett Samuels contributed.