Posted Aug 18, 2017, 2:59 pm
President Donald Trump should be removed from office under a constitutional mechanism, U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva said Friday. "There’s an accumulation of issues that bring into question this man’s ability to lead," said the Tucson Democrat, citing the 25th Amendment as an alternative to impeachment.
Grijalva lined up with U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat who said this week that the process should be used to push Trump from the White House. He made his statements on Trump while being interviewed on the Bill Buckmaster radio show on Friday.
Grijalva said Trump is "unhinged ... the capacity to lead is not there."
Under the 25th Amendment, the removal of a president begins with a vote by the vice president and majority of the Cabinet. If they find him "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office," he can be temporarily removed. If the president asserts his ability to hold office, the Congress must confirm that the president is unfit with a two-thirds vote of both houses. If that fails, the president can return to office.
The 25th Amendment removal has never been invoked.
Impeachment, the other means to remove a president from office involuntarily, entirely rests with Congress — the House must impeach a president with a majority vote and then the Senate holds a trial, with a two-thirds vote necessary to remove a president from office. While previous presidents have been impeached — Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton — none has ever been found guilty and removed by the Senate.
"It’s a constitutional means that’s available," Grijalva said of the 25th Amendment. "It’s not a far-fetched reaction to what’s going on with Trump and his administration."
The Democratic congressman said that he would join in an effort to have the House censure the president over his reaction to the fatal neo-Nazi violence in Charlottesville, Va., last weekend.
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Grijalva said Wednesday that he will help organize a protest during Trump's scheduled appearance in Phoenix on Tuesday.
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