25 House Dems back bill to remove Trump
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Patrick Semansky and Evan Vucci / AP
A group of 25 House Democrats, including former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, have been quietly working since April on a bill to remove Trump from office, Yahoo News' Michael Isikoff reports.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland is the main sponsor of the bill, which takes a radical and unprecedented approach to removing President Trump using the 25th Amendment. The bill goes after a specific part of the amendment (section 4) by proposing the creation of an "Oversight Commission on Presidential Capacity."
What it means: Some overlooked language in section 4 of the 25th Amendment allows for a separate body to remove the president based on mental or physical capacity. It was created in 1967 after JFK's assassination, but these House Dems. are citing Trump's erratic tweets as evidence he's mentally incapacitated to serve.
The Trump effect: After his tweets about Mika Brzezinski, four more House Democrats signed on to the bill.
What's next: The bill would have to pass for the "oversight" commission to be created. That body would include members of both sides of the aisle (three political people like former presidents, VPS, or senior government officials), as well as four psychiatrists and four physicians. Congress would then have to approve the body and they would be able "to determine whether the president is incapacitated, either mentally or physically" via an examination.
Although this bill has been gaining steady support since April, it would be a difficult thing to achieve for a number of reasons. First, no Republicans currently support the bill, though Raskin told Isikoff a number of them have privately expressed interest. Additionally, if Trump rejected the body's claim of incapacity, it would then require two-thirds of both chambers to block his rejection and subsequent request to resume office. And perhaps the hardest part: Vice President Mike Pence would have to sign off on the body's decision to invoke the 25th Amendment, as well as their assessment that Trump is incapacitated to serve.
(Story and headline corrected to say bill would remove Trump from office, but not through impeachment, and that Nancy Pelosi hasn't joined the effort.)
