By Hal Brown, MSW
On May 22, 2017 clinical psychologist Dr. John D. Gartner explained the reasons he posted a petition on Change.org.
Since then dozens of mental health professionals wrote about Trump’s dangerous psychopathology and educated those members of the public and Democrats in Congress who were opened minded.
Flash forward through four years of evidence growing, exponentially at times, that Trump was never mentally fit to be president and always dangerous. This culminated yesterday with his demonstrating that he was in the midst of an irrational narcissistic rage attack close to or beyond the borders of psychosis. However no diagnosis is needed: been there, done that. His action in fomenting his army of supporters to raid the Capitol is all the proof that is needed that he meets the criteria for invoking the 25th Amendment. His continuing to support the mob in his video following the occupation is further proof he is unfit.
Lot’s of people, some mental health professionals and some not, saw this coming and warned about it, but this isn’t time for “I told you so articles” like “Some of us saw this coming — but we were assured Donald Trump was no big deal” or “This could all have been prevented: How mental health experts were silenced” both from Salon.
This is the time for action.
If Trump doesn’t see it to be in his best interest to cut a deal with Pence for a pardon and resign, feasible but unlikely given his personality disorder, there is only one possible action to remove Trump immediately that is possible and this is the implementation of the 25th Amendment.
Even if the House started and rushed impeachment and there were enough Senators alarmed enough to vote to convict in a matter of days this still leaves Trump with enough time to use his power to do something like declaring martial war or a real war, say with Iran.
While there are reports being leaked out of the White House that Trump is “fuming mad” and has “lost it” making the case that this means he is now so mentally unfit he must immediately be removed isn’t relevant. There’s no need to make a psychiatric diagnosis to initiate the 25th Amendment. This isn’t the job that falls to Vice President and the majority of the Cabinet. Their role is to decide that Trump is unable to fulfill the duties required of the president. The power and duty of the office is to uphold the Constitution. If I read the 25th Amendment correctly, they don’t have to specify why he is unable to do this.
The crucial line in the 25th Amendment is highlighted below:
Section 3.
Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is
unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,
and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
Once this is implemented Section 4 comes into play. Note in bold the sections where a relevant timeframe or lack of a specific time is indicated.
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.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days 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. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
Trump would officially declare that he was not disabled by transmitting to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists. He’d have four days to do this but probably would do it as soon as possible. Then the decision must be made beginning in four days by both houses of Congress where 2/3rds of the members must vote to keep Vice President Pence as acting president. Herein lies the danger. Trump has to be removed from office until Joe Biden is sworn in as president at noon on Jan. 20th.
My reading of the language in Section 4 appears to say that Congress has 21 days to make their decision. It would be crucial for Democrats to use every parliamentary method possible to drag this process out until Jan. 20th. It seems to me that while the Senate will be under Republican control until then and Mitch McDonnell might not want to go along with this, the House under Democratic control could make sure that Trump is given a complete, if lengthy, fair hearing. In a matter of such vital importance giving Trump a such a hearing for him to prove he is fit for office can easily be justified. This would involve calling in as many witnesses as possible, including but not limited to psychiatric experts. Experts in national security could be called. Perhaps most importantly there are witnesses from the White House who would probably be called to testify as to what the irrational behavior they observed firsthand.
Nancy Pelosi can control the House schedule so if this was started today she could have them meet only on weekdays. Without weekend sessions and with each session as short as possible the number of days the prospect of Trump returning to office before Joe Biden is sworn in is less daunting. Jan. 18th is Martin Luther King, Jr. day, a federal holiday, so it is possible she would have the option of not meeting on that day.
If Trump’s fitness for office was still being debated on the end of the day on Jan. 19 the issue would be immaterial.
Addendum: A few days ago I wrote about what you’d see if you did an internet search for Trump and delusional. Today if you search DuckDuckGo News for “Trump 25th Amendment” this is what you’d see on the top of the page: