Running out of time? could seek to remove
As opposition to Donald Trump’s presidency grows amid the furore over his remarks about white nationalists, political editor David Williamson looks at the constitutional weapons that could be used to remove him from office
THE idea of Donald Trump winning the White House once seemed impossible. Now his opponents are working to see how they can get him out of the Oval Office – and he is under fire from some of the most senior figures in his own party.
President Trump’s claim that there is “blame on both sides” for the recent violence in Virginia has drawn fierce criticism.
White nationalists and protesters clashed in Charlottesville. Thirty-two-year-old Heather Heyer, who is remembered as a “passionate advocate for the disenfranchised”, was killed when a car was driven into a crowd.
Mr Trump’s comments that “you had a group on one side that was bad” and a “group on the other side that was also very violent” proved that more than half a year into office he has not lost his ability to shock and scandalise.
Prime Minister Theresa May, who has yet to announce when she plans to host him on a state visit to the UK, said she saw “no equivalence between those who propound fascist views and those who oppose them”.
The furore has put new energy behind the search for ways of removing Mr Trump from office. Here are the leading options. 1. Trigger the 25th amendment to the US Constitution.
Vice President Mike Pence has been a loyal defender of Mr Trump and is a vital link between the billionaire former reality TV star and both traditional Republicans and social conservatives. However, if he grew convinced Mr Trump was “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” he could seek to replace him as Acting President.
According to Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: “The assessment can be made either by the VicePresident and a majority of the Cabinet secretaries or by a congressionally appointed body, such as a panel of medical experts. If the President objects – a theoretical crisis that scholars call ‘contested removal’ – Congress has three weeks to debate and decide the issue.
“A two-thirds majority in each chamber is required to remove the President. There is no appeal.”
A Bill has already been introduced in the House of Representatives to establish a commission to determine whether Mr Trump is unfit for office.
This effort is backed by a collection of Democrats who have been alarmed by the President’s behaviour. But one of the most prominent calls for this method to be used to remove Mr Trump has come from a highly respected conservative columnist at the New York Times, Ross Douthat.
He wrote: “This will not get better. It could easily get worse.
“And as hard and controversial as a 25th Amendment remedy would be, there are ways in which Trump’s removal today should be less painful for conservatives than abandoning him in the campaign would have been – since Hillary Clinton will not be retroactively elected if Trump is removed, nor will [Supreme Court Justice] Neil Gorsuch be unseated.”
However, there would be deep unease at the use of this amendment to the constitution to remove a democratically elected president, albeit one who failed to win a majority of the popular vote.
David A Graham wrote in the Atlantic: “He shows no new signs of illness. If Trump is unfit for the presidency in the estimation of Douthat or anyone else, he is no less fit than he was on November 8, 2016, when voters had their chance to render a verdict.
“Pressing for the 25th Amendment solution in this case, with no evidence of a change in cognition or health, is de facto pressing for Mike Pence and the Cabinet to nullify the will of the voters.” 2. Impeach the President. There has been talk of impeachment almost from the moment Mr Trump won the election.
David Brooks, seen as one of the New York Times’ more conservative commentators, said in his November 11 column that “the guy will probably resign or be impeached within a year”.
Discussion about impeachment went up several gears when the claim emerged that Mr Trump had pressed then-FBI director James Comey to drop an investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Mr Flynn resigned after it emerged he had had conversations with the Russian ambassador.
A special counsel and congressional committees are investigating ties between Mr Trump’s associates and the Russian Government, which has been accused of backing efforts to meddle in the election.