The Democrats want to weaponize a vague constitutional amendment in an effort to undermine the presidency and unseat President Trump.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Friday announced a plan to draft legislation that would create a special commission with the power to remove a sitting president from office. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) joined Pelosi in proposing the bill, which would cite the 25th amendment of the U.S. Constitution to create a “Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of Office”.
The announcement came just days after Pelosi questioned President Trump’s mental fitness and accused him of being “in an altered state” as a result of his coronavirus treatment, but the House speaker insisted the announcement wasn’t related to the president. “This is not about President Trump,” Pelosi maintained Friday. “He will face the judgment of the voters. But he shows the need for us to create a process for future presidents.”
Pelosi’s announcement came less than a month before Election Day, but she insists it was unrelated to the upcoming election. “This is not about President Trump,” said Pelosi. “He will face the judgment of the voters. But he shows the need for us to create a process for future presidents.”
The 25th Amendment
The 25th Amendment allows the vice president to assume the presidency if Congress, the cabinet, and vice president declare the president is unfit for office in an emergency situation. However, it would take a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress to unseat the commander-in-chief.
The amendment was introduced in 1967, and Raskin says the time has come for Congress to set up a committee. Under the plan of the Democrats, legislators will form a 17-member bipartisan committee to consider whether the acting president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” for either mental or physical reasons.
Republicans scoffed at the Democratic initiative as a cheap ploy to sway the election. Shortly after Pelosi and Raskin’s announcement, reporters asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) about the plan. “That’s absurd. Absolutely absurd,” McConnell said. “Again, right here in his last three weeks before the election, I think those kinds of wild comments should be largely discounted.”
President Trump said he doesn’t believe the Democrats are targeting him with their 25th Amendment push. Instead, he suggested the bill really aims to set up an exit plan for Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden. “Crazy Nancy Pelosi is looking at the 25th Amendment in order to replace Joe Biden with Kamala Harris,” Trump said on Twitter shortly after the Democrats announced their plan. “The Dems want that to happen fast because Sleepy Joe is out of it!!!”
Trump later elaborated on his comments during a virtual campaign rally on prominent conservative Rush Limbaugh’s radio talk show. “Joe is in no condition to be a candidate. We can say it nicely or we can say it badly,” Trump told Limbaugh. “The 25th Amendment that crazy Nancy’s playing around with — she’s gone crazy, she’s a nut job — but this 25th Amendment, I think they put it in so they can get Kamala in.”
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