If Trump administration officials believe President Trump is unfit for office, they should strip him of his executive powers using the 25th Amendment, according to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
“Let’s be clear: We already have a constitutional crisis if the cabinet believes the President of the United States can’t do his job and then refuses to follow the rules that have been laid down in the Constitution. They can’t have it both ways,” Warren wrote on Twitter.
Let’s be clear: We already have a constitutional crisis if the cabinet believes the President of the United States can’t do his job and then refuses to follow the rules that have been laid down in the Constitution. They can’t have it both ways.
— Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) September 6, 2018
“If senior officials believe the president is unfit, they should stop hiding behind anonymous op-eds and leaking info to Bob Woodward, and do what the Constitution demands they do: invoke the 25th Amendment and remove this president from office,” she continued.
If senior officials believe the president is unfit, they should stop hiding behind anonymous op-eds and leaking info to Bob Woodward, and do what the Constitution demands they do: invoke the 25th Amendment and remove this president from office.
— Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) September 6, 2018
She added that her call was not about politics, but “about the safety of our children, the national security of our nation, and the future of our democracy.”
Warren’s comments follow the New York Times publishing an anonymous opinion piece by a member of the administration who describes themselves as also belonging to the movement quietly resisting Trump.
In the op-ed, published Wednesday afternoon, the unnamed Trump aide detailed how they and other staffers work “diligently” to “frustrate” parts of the president’s agenda and “his worst inclinations” because their first duty is to the country rather than the White House.
“Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president,” the mystery author wrote. “But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.”
Warren’s remarks also come after disputed excerpts from a book written by veteran journalist Bob Woodward, of Watergate scandal fame, were circulated ahead of its release on Sept. 11.
In the book, Woodward reports that former National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn once took a document from the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office to stop Trump from exiting a trade deal with South Korea.
The 25th Amendment is triggered when cabinet members agree to advise Congress that they have lost confidence in the president to act as the country’s executive. If Congress approves by a supermajority in both the House and the Senate, the vice president becomes the acting commander in chief.
