Other than going public with the fact that he’s an idiot that they undermine and disobey, how exactly would administration officials force Congress to do anything?
Could be, but the op ed at least implies there was but that they rejected it for what were ultimately political reasons,
If they present Congress with an invocation of the 25th amendment, the President will surely present Congress with a rebuttal, and Congress is forced to choose which one is right and who is the actual president. There’s even a time limit on how quickly they have to act.
Congress could of course choose to back Trump rather than the White House Collaborators, but that’s an act.
That’s not my reading at all.
“early whispers” doesn’t suggest anything about having a majority.
Incidentally, am I the only one who thinks Trump is going to start gluing documents to his desk so people can’t steal them?
Reading that quote, the author says the reason they didn’t proceed was they didn’t want to cause a constitutional crisis. If they didn’t proceed because there wasn’t a majority view that the President was incapable of performing his duties, their unwillingness to provoke a crisis would be irrelevant. It isn’t proof of a majority, but it is suggestive.
Seems to me one reason they might not be able to get a majority was because people didn’t want to cause a crisis (or be seen to cause a crisis).
Sure. I’m suggesting that a majority agreed that the 25th amendment could apply — that Trump was unfit — but there was not a majority ready to face the resulting shitshow. So they’re cowards, not heroes.
The way I see the 25th scenario playing out, Congress would not have the votes to remove Trump (at most 5% of Republicans in Congress vote to remove). So Trump would be back in place, fire everyone who invoked the 25th and everyone who was associated with them. Republicans in Congress would continue to furrow their brows. What happens next seems very uncertain, but I wouldn’t expect it to be a less dangerous situation than the current scenario.
Basically I wonder if a failed invocation of the 25th would end up looking like the failed military coup in Turkey.
Well, sure. They’re still working for Trump.
Anyone with a brain can see that Trump is unfit. That doesn’t mean there’s a majority to depose him, whether for political reasons or otherwise.
I’m tired of all this calculating and triangulating.
What about the naive argument? “The President is dangerously unfit for office. I’m going to publicly resign, tell the world what I have seen, and let the chips fall where they may?”
That’s probably the only real recourse. Do that and hope others follow suit until a critical mass is reached.
**
LGM post states the obvious but it needs to be said I think
Donald Trump is unfit to be president of the United States. I believe it would be very difficult to find a single person of any actual intelligence who would disagree with this blindingly obvious conclusion. And reaching that conclusion has nothing to do with ideological commitments per se: if anything, the Republican elites would be the happiest people in America, if there were only some magical method for terminating Trump’s presidency without incurring the wrath of the mob.
But it can’t be done because the Constitution doesn’t work any more. Donald Trump became president, and he will remain president for at least another two and a half years, because the nation’s foundational legal document has become fundamentally dysfunctional in the age in which we now live.
Trump’s presidency is merely the most obvious and extreme manifestation of the fact that the Constitution is failing.
Totally normal guys
I guess the NYT has to disconnect their phone line for a few days now.
Remember when Obama saluted a marine while holding a cup, and it was the worst presidential lapse in decorum in like ever?
I am disappointed I have not yet seen a political cartoon with a Trump-toddler in a car seat with a toy steering wheel and gear-shift, making vroom-vroom noises, while an adult silhouette actually sits in the drivers’ seat.
I mean there has to be a W Bush era one of those with Cheney driving right?
Well, there is this:
Replace the first frame and it’s about Trump.
