House Dem seeks to create commission on 'presidential capacity'

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill




BY CRISTINA MARCOS - 05/12/17 04:46 PM EDT

A House Democrat is introducing legislation that would establish a commission to determine whether a president is unfit for office.

Rep. Jamie Raskin’s (D-Md.) bill seeks to create the Oversight Commission on Presidential Capacity to fill a role outlined by the Constitution’s 25th Amendment, which sets up presidential removal procedures.

The 25th Amendment states that the vice president and a majority of either the president’s Cabinet “or of such other body as Congress may by law provide” can declare that they believe a president cannot fulfill his or her official duties. If a president refuses to step down, two-thirds of both the House and Senate could vote to force the ouster.

"The 25th Amendment was adopted 50 years ago, but Congress has never set up the body it calls for to determine presidential fitness in the event of physical or psychological incapacity. Now is the time to do it," Raskin said in a statement Friday.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/333193-house-dem-seeks-to-create-commission-on-presidential-capacity

[cstanleytech]

1. Dangerous though because the Repugnants probably would have invoked it themselves to remove Obama

had it existed so this needs to be handled "very" carefully.

[OnDoutside]

2. +1

[NastyRiffraff]

3. Jamie is my rep!

He's a good guy and I'm proud of him. I love this; it will probably come to nothing ultimately, but it has to be said.

[Orrex]

4. I love it! First there was resistance, now there's talk of capacity...

Maybe next there'll be charges.

Electrifying!

[Yonnie3]

5. Resistance and capacitance can be complex, especially if there are changes to the charges, but ...

the inverse of this complex impedance is admittance. Admittance to the charges, that's where it's all headed.

bzzzt!

[jgmiller]

6. This is great to get talk started but

the bill creating the commission would still need to be signed by the president. Assuming you could even get the bill passed there is no way you would get a 2/3 vote to override the veto. Also you can't override a pocket veto so there is no way this avenue would ever work.

The part of the 25th that is important and more likely to be used is section III. I've always said that is the only reason Pence stuck around, in the back of his mind he knows that he could go to the cabinet and get 8 cabinet members to agree to sign the letter. Sure there are some that would never agree to it like DeVos but Mattis and others would if they felt Trump was out of his mind. From that starting point he could probably sway some others to go along.

If Pence really wanted to do this he could even precipitate it without getting his hands dirty. It's obvious Trump lashes out, all he needs to do is get someone to leak that there is thought of doing this and maybe put a few cabinet member names out there that are ready to sign. Trump's likely reaction would be to start firing some of them. After that ones on the fence would actually move to do it.

The moment that letter is signed it's a foregone conclusion that the president would be removed. He would of course reply as per the constitution and then congress would be forced to vote. Even if they couldn't get 2/3's in each chamber Trump would be effectively removed, they would have no choice but to essentially shutdown the executive branch by withdrawing funding. He could sit in the WH all day long and not be able to do a thing.