The siege of the American Capitol by riotous supporters of President Trump has repeated the talk of an extreme remedy: declaring the president unfit to do his job and removing him from office under the 25th Amendment.
This is not the first time that opponents have sought Trump’s dismissal by calling for the amendment. Early in the presidential term, Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) introduced a resolution urging Trump to conduct a medical and psychiatric evaluation to determine his suitability for office, with a view to the law governing presidential succession.
The proposal came nowhere.
Many Democrats took up the issue again on Wednesday after a pro-Trump mob, demanded by the president, briefly invaded the Capitol and interrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory in November. An unlikely ally, the National Assn. of manufacturers, endorsed the call for Trump’s removal less than two weeks before his term ended, urging Vice President Mike Pence to call for the 25th amendment as a way to ‘preserve democracy’.
People are hiding in the House Gallery while a mob tries to break into the American Capitol’s House on Wednesday.
(Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)
“It’s not law and order. This is chaos. This is a mob rule. This is dangerous. It 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 a majority of the president’s cabinet can declare the president that he “can not fulfill the powers and duties of his office” by the leaders. of the House and Senate. At that point, the vice president assumes the duties of the president.
But it’s not that simple: Trump will have to go along, a scenario that, to say the least, seems unlikely.
If the vice president and the cabinet declare the president unfit, he can regain his powers by writing to legislative leaders and declaring his ability to do the job. If the vice-president and members of the cabinet object, the matter will be referred to Congress, which has 21 days to act. It would require a two-thirds vote in both chambers to strip the president of his powers once and for all.
Trump’s term will expire at noon on January 20 at Eastern Standard Time.
The Constitution makes it clear that the vice president is next in line. But there was a question about how exactly it worked.
In 1955, after a heart attack and other illnesses, President Eisenhower was concerned about the transfer of power if he became temporarily unfit, especially in light of relations with the Soviet Union. He worked out an informal arrangement with his vice-president, Richard Nixon, in case he had 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 stipulates how a vice president should be replaced. The first use of the amendment came in 1973 when President Nixon selected 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 elected former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller as its vice president.
In 1987, assistants to President Reagan considered calling for the amendment when concerns about his listless and detached behavior arose in his second term. However, that prospect was soon dismissed when Chief of Staff Howard Baker considered Reagan fit to serve.
Separately, Reagan and President George W. Bush voluntarily handed over power to their vice presidents on three occasions when they were operated on under general anesthesia. Each regained the powers of the presidency with little notice or disruption of the government’s activities.
In another step to hold Trump accountable, Minnesota Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar said Wednesday she is drafting new articles of presidential indictment.
“We can not allow him to remain in office,” she wrote on Twitter, “it is a matter of preserving our Republic and we must keep our oath.”
Trump was indicted by the Democratic-led House of Representatives in December 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, stemming from attempts to put the head of Ukraine under pressure to dig up Biden’s dirt ahead of the 2020 campaign. The president was acquitted a month later by the GOP-led Senate.