House passes 25th Amendment resolution asking Pence to remove Trump from office, but the VP isn’t interested
Pence
The U.S. House of Representatives approved a non-binding resolution on Tuesday that calls on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to remove President Trump from office.
Citing Trump’s role in inciting “a massive violent invasion of the United States Capitol” on Jan. 6, the day the president had summoned his supporters to Washington to protest the certification of the Electoral College vote formalizing President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, the resolution, introduced by Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., passed by a largely party line vote of 223-205. One Republican, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, was the only lawmaker to break ranks.
The resolution asked Pence “to immediately use his powers under Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to convene and mobilize the principal officers of the executive departments in the Cabinet to declare what is obvious to a horrified Nation: That the President is unable to successfully discharge the duties and powers of his office.”
Yet even as the House was in the process of voting on whether to proceed with the resolution, Pence released a letter that he had sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stating that he would not invoke the 25th Amendment to seek to remove Trump from office.
“I do not believe that such a course of action is in the best interest of our Nation or consistent with our Constitution,” Pence said in the letter, adding that invoking the amendment “would set a terrible precedent.”
Ratified in 1967 following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the 25th Amendment allows for the formal transfer of a president’s duties should he or she die in office or become disabled. Under Section 4 of the amendment, a president can be stripped of their powers, although remaining technically in office, if the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet vote to do so.
In introducing the resolution for a vote, Raskin, detailing the attack on the nation’s Capitol, placed the blame for the chaos at Trump’s feet.
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