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Urge Vice President Pence to invoke 25th Amendment
The Democrats in the House Judiciary Committee believe President Donald Trump must be held responsible for the violence that rocked the American capital and are calling for Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment and remove Donald Trump from office immediately.
Writing to Pence following the security breach on Washington DC, the nation’s capital, the Democrats said; “We have seen the fruit of the President’s remarks in the violence and chaos unleashed today.
“Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution provides the Vice President and a majority of sitting Cabinet secretaries with the authority to determine a president as unfit if he ‘is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.’ Even in his video announcement this (on Wednesday) afternoon, President Trump admitted that he is not mentally sound and is still unable to process and accept the results of the 2020 election.
“President Trump’s willingness to incite violence and social unrest to overturn the election results by force clearly meet this standard.”
The 25th amendment was ratified in 1967 following concerns after John F Kennedy’s assassination. In simple terms, it’s the process in which the Vice President becomes president should the president be unable to do his or her job.
The fourth section of the amendment – the process for removing a president when others believe he is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” – has never been used in the amendment’s short history.
In order for that section to be triggered, the Vice President and a majority of the cabinet must declare the president unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. If the president disputes that, two-thirds of both the House and the Senate must vote for the vice president to take office.
Had lawmakers had more than 14 days, they could also come up with legislation an alternative group that the Vice President could work with to declare a president is unable to serve.
Previously, Gerald Ford invoked the amendment’s first two sections when he became Richard Nixon’s Vice President after Spiro Agnew resigned and when he became president after Nixon resigned.
The amendment’s third section, which allows a president to temporarily cede power and duties to a vice president, was used after Ronald Reagan underwent surgery in 1985 and when George W Bush was under anaesthesia in 2002 and 2007. – With The Guardian reports
