here's why donnie's "impeachment distracted me" excuse is a complete fail: constitution 25.3

[unblock]

when people talk about the 25th amendment as a solution to getting rid of donnie, they're talking about section 4, which was designed to let the cabinet and congress remove a president when effectively, virtually everyone accepts that they can't govern. meant for severe incapacitation due to stroke or coma. topic already exhausted to death.


but section 3 allows the president to temporarily step aside and let the vice-president be "acting president" until the president is able to return to duty. this is typically only used when the president has surgery and is therefore temporarily incapacitated.

but if donnie is trying to claim that he couldn't govern effectively due to the impeachment, well, he can whine about the injustice of it all, but if he actually cared the slightest about the interests of the united states and its people (ha!), then he had an obligation to step aside and let pence be acting president until impeachment was resolved and he could resume his normal focus.

he can't have it both ways. if impeachment was enough to make him govern ineffectively, he should have stepped aside. other politicians have even resigned when embroiled in scandal, even while insisting they were innocent, because they care about their constituents and know they deserve effective representation. not donnie. the thought of stepping aside, even temporarily, no doubt never even remotely occurred to him.



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.

[Thomas Hurt]

1. but, but, but that is unfair, and conspiracy and alien lizardmen and sh*t... (roll eyes)

[elleng]

2. 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. . .

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxxv

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.

[unblock]

3. yeah, section 4's been talked to death, ain't happening. not a solution to a problem like donnie.

no way is pence and a majority of the cabinet going to remove him, never mind 2/3rd of *both* houses.

removal by impeachment is way easier, only requiring a majority in the house and 2/3rds of the senate, and neither the vice-president nor any cabinet members. if that couldn't happen, no way is removal via 25.4 happening.

and it wasn't designed for someone like donnie. it was designed for someone like woodrow wilson after his stroke. someone really incapacitated, not someone who is "merely" incompetent, horrible, and evil. someone so inept *even his own people* agree he has to go. donnie doesn't fit that bill, alas.