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Elizabeth Warren has stated that the 25th amendment should be used to remove Trump from presidency because he is unfit for presidency. Trump has broken many norms and implied many alarming things. For example, he stated that he had a bigger nuclear button than Kim Jong Un, demonstrating a lack of professionalism. If that were to happen, then the Vice President and the Presidential Cabinet would have to declare that the current president is unfit to stay in power. If the Trump declares otherwise, then both the Senate and the House of Representatives would have to have a 2/3 vote to give the presidential position to the vice president.The chances of this succeeding are very small. Vice President Mike Pence still supports Trump and probably would not try to declare himself president.
According to Vanity Fair in an article from last year, Trump said "What's that?" in response to a discussion about the 25th amendment. At that time, former chief strategist Steve Bannon believed that "Trump has only a 30 percent chance of making it the full term."
At this point, however, it is already halfway through his presidency anyways. Removing Trump is not very convenient, and I doubt that making Mike Pence President would be that much different from Trump.
Should the Vice President use the 25th amendment? Is that even a good idea? Would it even be possible considering the current congress?
Sources:
https://www.salon.com/2018/09/07/elizabeth-warren-thinks-it-could-be-time-to-invoke-the-25th-amendment-on-trump-after-times-op-ed/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/09/05/could-25th-amendment-used-remove-trump-office/1012979001/
https://www.businessinsider.com/25th-amendment-trump-definition-section-4-cabinet-2017-10
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/donald-trump-is-unraveling-white-house-advisers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHUkMUpAgT0&ab_channel=CNN
4 comments:
I think that the Vice President shouldn't use the 25th amendment because it sets a bad precedent for future presidents, and the current government would most likely drag out the proceedings if it did happen. I agree that there wouldn't be much of a point to remove Trump now that it's already two years into his presidency, especially since the Vice President still seems to support Trump and wouldn't enact policies that are drastically different.
Honestly, Trump has done so much since that comment about the missile button that I forgot about it. What worries me more is the Russia investigation and his possible ties to it, our deteriorating relationship with our close allies (specifically Canada), and his open support and admiration of authoritarian leaders like Putin.
Yes, Pence (at least to the public) supports Trump. They may share similar political views and ideals (although the NYT op-ed suggests not all his top officials do), but Pence has certain presidential characteristics that Trump doesn't have. He doesn't make outrageous comments on Twitter or during press conferences, he has experience and an understanding of politics (much more than Trump) and he just might try to close the divide between the political parties.
Again, while Pence is extremely loyal to Trump publicly, we don't know what he's thinking behind closed doors. I think that this idea of Pence using the 25th amendment has a new meaning after New York Times' op-ed. Is there really a Republican resistance in the White House? Does Pence consider Trump to be unfit for office? If so, what is he waiting for? Could he be waiting for Mueller to release a final report?
I think the strongest argument for using the 25th amendment is the Mueller ordeal and Russian interference in the elections. However, if that is the basis for removing Trump from office, then Pence would theoretically take his place, which doesn't make it a whole lot more just in my mind because Pence got his place in office because Trump won, thus the validity of Pence's win is questionable, just like Trump's. (So then is the more just replacement Paul Ryan?) We don't exactly have planned out protocol for what to do with the elected POTUS when a foreign government interferes in our election...
I think the 25th Amendment was carefully worded so that presidents may only be removed by Congress if they're unable to perform their jobs at all for whatever reason. Perhaps a president may have become incapacitated or become insane. While there certainly is a strong case to be made that Trump is unfit to be president, he is still a functional rational human being who has the support of his party behind him. The 25th amendment is only meant to be used if both parties find that the president is unable to do his job. Trump however is able to do his job, just maybe not very well.
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