It appears that administration “officials
have started discussing the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment to
remove President Trump from office, according to a source familiar with the
matter.
“Officials have exchanged calls and
messages about the extraordinary measure, which would require a majority of
Cabinet officials plus Vice President Pence to declare to Congress that Trump
is unable to fulfill his duties as president.” [1]
Your humble servant suggested this very thing on another occasion [2], but inciting insurrection might convince the responsible officers that the time has come.
Why now? His presidency will end on
January 20th, just a few days hence.
But the problem is, he will be president
until January 20th. While he isn’t likely to get the cooperation of
the military in his yen to seize power, he nonetheless controls a massive
governmental apparatus. Given that he appears to be completely off his rocker,
it’s probably not a good idea to allow him to retain possession of it for even
a short time. It would be bad for national security for the ship of state to be
essentially rudderless until Joe Biden’s inauguration.
There may be too many sycophants in his
administration to pull off any 25th Amendment action, however. If
so, there is another way.
No law prohibits a president from being
impeached twice. And this time, Trump really did it.
Section 2383 of Title 18 of the United
States Code provides that whoever “incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages
in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or
the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this
title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of
holding any office under the United States.” [3] That seems to
cover Trump’s behavior pretty well, and committing a federal felony is a
legitimate ground for impeachment.
It’s also a legitimate ground for
conviction on an impeachment.
But would there be enough Republican
senators to convict? Mitch McConnell, for one, seems to have reached the end of
his tolerance for Trump’s shenanigans, and he is in a position to be
persuasive.
But we have to get this guy out of there. Now. Today. It might be difficult to
come up with something crazier than inciting insurrection, but do we really
want to test it out?
