Trump cabinet discusses invocation of 25th Amendment: reports



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  • Members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet discuss invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office, CBS News, ABC News, and CNN reported.
  • This extraordinary development comes after the president put his supporters into a frenzy and a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, inciting violence and forcing lawmakers and staff to evacuate.
  • Jim Acosta of CNN reported that cabinet secretaries are in the early stages of discussions on the 25th Amendment, and Margaret Brennan of CBS News reported that nothing concrete has yet been presented to Vice President Mike Pence.
  • Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee also sent Pence a letter urging him to invoke the amendment and remove the president from office.
  • Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

Members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet are in the early stages of considering the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, multiple media reported, a move unlike any since the amendment was ratified there. six decades ago.

CNN’s Jim Acosta reported that cabinet secretaries are in the early stages of discussions, and Margaret Brennan of CBS News reported that nothing concrete has yet been presented to Vice President Mike Pence. ABC News also confirmed the reports, all of which came anonymously.

The extraordinary development comes after Trump supporters, whipped into a frenzy by the president’s conspiracy theories over the 2020 election, converged on Washington, DC and stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday as Congress met to count the electoral votes and finalize that of President-elect Joe Biden. victory.

The process is generally pro forma and does not attract much national attention. But it has come into the national spotlight this year because the president and his supporters have declared baselessly that Congress and, in particular, Vice President Mike Pence, have the legal power to reject electoral votes in states where Trump has. declared that the election was “rigged” against him.

Congress and the Vice President do not have such authority and are only responsible for counting the votes of the electoral college issued to certify the results of general elections. Lawmakers can object to votes, but for an objection to stand, it must be supported by the House and Senate. Because the Democratic Party controls the House, there is virtually no chance that Republicans who bought into Trump’s desire to quash the election will be successful. Pence, for his part, has no role in approving or rejecting a state’s electoral votes and his involvement in the matter is largely ceremonial.

Either way, Trump has repeatedly asserted that Pence and Congressional Republicans are forced to “decertify” electoral votes from battlefield states he lost because, he says, their respective elections. were carried out fraudulently and their results were therefore illegitimate. As Business Insider has reported, there is no evidence that any of these claims are valid and, in fact, the 2020 election was the safest and most secure in US history. United.

Wednesday’s scene at the United States Capitol looked like something out of a dystopian novel as the president’s supporters broke through barriers, clashed with police, broke into the Capitol building, vandalized and robbed goods and went up to the floors of the House and Senate.

All the while, lawmakers, Hill staff and reporters took shelter in their offices and behind makeshift barricades before being evacuated from the building. Trump supporters rampaged on Capitol Hill, occupied lawmakers’ offices and strolled outside for hours after the evacuation, and photos showed several rioters carrying Confederate flags through the building, sometimes flanked of portraits of civil war figures.

A noose was erected outside Capitol Hill, and Trump loyalists attacked members of the media covering the riots as they unfolded. NBC’s Tom Winter reported that half a dozen people were taken to hospital, and it was later reported that a woman who was shot inside the Capitol had died.

Trump Capitol protesters 10620

A pro-Trump crowd bursts into the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. Congress held a joint session today to ratify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Electoral College 306-232 over President Donald Trump. A group of Republican senators said they would reject votes from the Electoral College of several states unless Congress appoints a commission to verify election results.

Win McNamee / Getty Images


With the area and building secured, Congress reconvened to end the debate on electoral challenges and count the electoral votes. Several lawmakers in the Republican House and Senate have overturned decisions to back Trump in his post-riots efforts, calling them “heinous,” “illegal” and “unacceptable.”

A number of administration officials resigned after the protests, including First Lady’s Chief of Staff Melania Trump and former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews and White House Social Secretary Rickie Niceta. Trump’s National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger and Deputy Chief of Staff Chris Liddell are all would have weighed his resignation.

The Daily Beast reported that Trump aides and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is married to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, have personally called senior White House officials and cabinet secretaries and their asked to stay overnight.

Invoke the 25th Amendment

If the president’s office invokes the amendment, it would be the first time in U.S. history that a sitting president has been removed from office for a non-health issue. The amendment sets out the steps that can be taken to ensure a transition of power if a president is found to be unfit or unable to serve.

He has been summoned three times before, but only for reasons related to the President’s physical health. The first time was in July 1985, when then-President Ronald Reagan underwent surgery for colon cancer. At the time, Reagan allowed Vice President George HW Bush to take office when he couldn’t.

The other two times that the amendment was invoked were during the administration of George W. Bush, in June 2002 and June 2007. In both cases, Bush temporarily transferred power to Vice President Dick Cheney while he was in office. ‘he was undergoing routine colonoscopies.

If Trump’s cabinet invoked the amendment to remove him from office, it would be by using Section IV, which allows the vice president and a majority in the cabinet to remove the president from office if they determine he is is unfit or unable to serve his term.

The stipulation reads: “Whenever the vice-president and a majority of the principal leaders of the executive departments or of any other organ that Congress may provide by law, transmit to the president pro tempore of the Senate and to the president of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice-President immediately assumes the powers and duties of the office of Acting President. “



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