pelosi: Congress will discuss rules for Trump's removal under 25th amendment | 2020-10-08 21:44:16 (Visits: 537 Times) |  | | David Smith in Washington @smithinamericaThu 8 Oct 2020 20.48 EDT
Democrats plan to create commission to review president's fitness for office as speaker warns of'disassociation from reality. Democrats in the US Congress have announced a plan to create a commission to review whether Donald Trump is capable of carrying out his presidential duties or should face removal from office.The office of the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, announced a Friday press conference about the bill after she expressed concern that Trump, who is under treatment for coronavirus at the White House, is suffering a “disassociation from reality”.The president has unleashed a barrage of erratic and self-contradictory tweets and declarations in recent days that have left staff scrambling and raised concerns over his stability.In a zigzagging interview on the Fox Business channel on Thursday, his first since being hospitalised, Trump, 74, boasted: "I'm back because I am a perfect physical specimen and I'm extremely young. And so I'm lucky in that way." Pelosi, who is negotiating a Covid-19 economic stimulus plan, responded at her weekly press conference: “The plan isn't for the president to say that he's a perfect physical specimen. Specimen, maybe I can agree with that ... And young, he said he was young."Donald Trump suggests veterans' families could have given him Covid.Trump "is, shall we say, in an altered state right now" and "the disassociation from reality would be funny if it weren't so deadly," the 80 -year-old speaker added while wearing a mask.Trump reacted angrily to Pelosi's manoeuvre, tweeting: “Crazy Nancy is the one who should be under observation. They don't call her Crazy for nothing!” He also retweeted Republican allies, including the congressman Mark Green, who posted: “I wouldn't put it past @SpeakerPelosi to stage a coup. She has already weaponized impeachment, what's to keep her from weaponizing the 25th amendment? We need a new Speaker surprise!” In the move on Thursday, Pelosi revealed that Democrats will meet to focus on the 25th amendmen t to the constitution, which contains a clause that allows a president to be removed from office against his will because of physical or mental incapacity.Her office followed up with the announcement that Pelosi and the congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland will hold a press conference at 10.15am on Friday “to discuss the introduction of the Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of Office Act”. The legislation will create the body and process called for in the 25th amendment to “enable Congress to help ensure effective and uninterrupted leadership in the highest office in the Executive Branch of government", it added.Although the 25th amendment enables Pelosi to create such a panel to review the president's health and fitness for office, the House of Representatives would not be able to remove Trump from office without the agreement of the vice-president, Mike Pence, and members of the cabinet. They have given no hint that such a move is imminent.The Demo cratic-led House impeached Trump last year on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after he sought to pressure Ukraine for political favours. The Republican-controlled Senate did not convict him. |
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