House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is supporting a bill that would give Congress a role in determining whether the U.S. President should be forced out of office because they are incapable of doing their job, saying she is alarmed by President Donald Trump‘s erratic behavior in recent days following his COVID-19 diagnosis.
During a Thursday press conference, Pelosi said she would speak on Friday about establishing a process that would effectively give Congress a role in removing a president from office under the Constitution’s 25th Amendment. This allows a president to be removed from office if a majority of Cabinet members and the vice president rule him unable to carry out his duties. However, it wouldn’t be out of line as to what is already permitted in section four of the 25th Amendment, which allows for the majority of a body established by law, along with the vice president, to declare in writing the vice president as immediate acting president if the president is disabled and unable to do his job.
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Democrats say that the bill, to be introduced Friday by Pelosi and Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, will create that body to determine presidential fitness and to “help ensure effective and uninterrupted leadership in the highest office in the Executive Branch of government,” according to Pelosi’s office. CNN notes that while the measure has “virtually no chance” at becoming law, it should increase the attention being paid to Trump’s condition as doctors refuse to offer much information on his coronavirus treatment and recovery.
Pelosi has questioned during recent days if Trump can perform his presidential duties while on a drug regimen that includes a heavy steroid, noting his recent erratic tweeting and behavior. On Thursday, she said Trump appears to be “in an altered state right now” and told Bloomberg TV that “there may be some impairment of judgment.”
Pelosi added in her press conference, “What I said about the President was that we don’t know if somebody who — I’ve not said this, I’ve quoted others to say there are those who say that when you’re on steroids and/or if you have COVID-19 or both that there may be some impairment of judgment, but again that’s for the doctors and the scientists to determine.” In response, Trump retweeted several messages suggesting that Pelosi is trying to overthrow his administration, writing himself, “Crazy Nancy is the one who should be under observation. They don’t call her Crazy for nothing!”
