According to former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, the idea of having Donald Trump removed from office under the 25th Amendment was much more than a passing thought. Over an eight-day period following the removal of James Comey, that possibility seemed very real. As reporter Scott Pelling discussed on CBS This Morning, McCabe was not alone in this thought.
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Pelley: There were meetings at the Justice Department at which it was discussed whether the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet could be brought together to remove the president of the United States under the 25th Amendment. These were the eight days from Comey's firing to the point that Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel. And the highest levels of American law enforcement were trying to figure out what do with the president.
McCabe has an upcoming book titled The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump, and is appearing this week on 60 MInutes. The book focuses on how the FBI is attempting to deal with a situation in which it’s trapped between a White House and outside forces that are both attempting to prevent it from finding the truth.
In his interview, McCabe also revealed that he began both the obstruction of justice investigation and the counterintelligence investigation—the investigation into whether Trump had not just conspired with Russia, but was acting as a Russian agent against the interests of the United States—by talking to him about the Comey firing. McCabe says that he kept detailed notes about how and why those investigations began, specifically to guard against the kind of distortion and attacks that Trump has leveled at the FBI.
McCabe: I was very concerned that I was able to put the Russia case on absolutely solid ground, in an indelible fashion. That were I removed quickly, or reassigned or fired, that the case could not be closed or vanish in the night without a trace.
That turns out to have been very good planning.
It was previously known that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein offered to wear a wire in his meetings with Trump in order to collect information that might be used in explaining why it was necessary to take action under the 25th Amendment. Earlier reports had put this offer off as something that Rosenstein suggested in a moment of dark humor. But according to McCabe, this offer was made seriously—and more than once.
25th Amendment, Section 4
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.