Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz said Tuesday that trying to remove President Trump with the 25th Amendment to the Constitution would be an unconstitutional action, and said supporters of this plan don’t understand the purpose of the amendment.
Democrats have openly talked about using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump, and some have suggested it can be used to remove an “incompetent” president.
But Dershowitz said the language is there to handle succession issues when a president is physically incapacitated.
“The 25th amendment was intended for a president who is shot, a president who has had a stroke, a president who is incapacitated, not a president who you disagree with, or you think is creating havoc in the White House,” Dershowitz said on Fox News.
“That you have an election for,” he said. “But you don’t use the 25th Amendment promiscuously.”
The issue came up after the New York Times reported last week that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was openly talking about using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump. Rosenstein dismissed the story, but Dershowitz said if true, Rosenstein should be removed from office.
“If the 25th Amendment would constitute an unlawful coup, a coup d’etat, for the first time in American history,” he said. “It would be unconstitutional, it would be illegal, and nobody should be talking about it.”
“If this president remains healthy and capable of making decisions, no matter how much we disagree with him, the 25th Amendment is off the table,” Dershowitz added.
Trump and Rosenstein are expected to talk Thursday about the Times story. While there was chatter Monday that Rosenstein was on the way out, new reports indicate Rosenstein is likely to stay in his office after his talk with Trump.
