Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) will introduce legislation on Friday to create a commission to evaluate the president for removal from office under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.
The new bill, revealed in a media advisory, would create a Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and and Duties of Office, to “ensure effective and uninterrupted leadership in the highest office” of government.
Earlier Thursday, Pelosi hinted at a plot to remove President Donald Trump from office under the 25th Amendment.
“Tomorrow, by the way, tomorrow — come here tomorrow. We’re going to be talking about the 25th Amendment,” she told reporters.
The relevant section of the 25th Amendment, Section 4, provides (emphasis added):
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Pelosi’s commission would not be created until passed by the Senate and signed into law by the president.
Her proposal has no chance of becoming law under Trump. The Speaker appears to be exploiting Trump’s recent coronavirus diagnosis to create a sense of instability around the administration prior to the election, though the president is recovering and is showing no further symptoms of the illness.
Raskin, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, played a key role in the impeachment of President Trump last year.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told conservative radio host Mark Levin on Thursday evening that he would create his own commission to evaluate Pelosi’s “mental capacity to be Speaker of the House.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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