On Jan. 13, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump for his actions connected to the attack on the Capitol building in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6.
Voting in favor of the article of impeachment, which charged the president with incitement of insurrection, 293 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including 10 republicans, made an unprecedented and historic move to impeach Trump for a second time during his four year term, an action that has never been taken against a sitting U.S. president. However, a second impeachment isn’t the only unprecedented action that’s been considered since the attack.
The announcement of the impeachment followed the passage of a non-binding resolution earlier in the week calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment.
What is the 25th Amendment, and what does it do? Continue reading for some insight into how the amendment came to be and to learn how it could be used as Trump’s term comes to an end.
The 25th Amendment enumerates the power of the vice president and a majority of the members of the cabinet to remove the president if they deem him or her unfit to continue serving as president. Charles Zelden, a professor of history and political science in the department of humanities and politics at NSU, explained that the 25th Amendment was passed as a way to remedy a “hole” in the Constitution.
“The Constitution says there’s a president and vice president, and the vice president takes over the president dies, but what happens when the president is incapacitated? What happens if the president is not in a position to be, effectively, the president? The Constitution didn’t provide for any way to shift power on a temporary basis, so the 25th Amendment was set to do that,” said Zelden.
Historically, the 25th Amendment has been invoked in temporary circumstances, such as when a sitting president has needed to undergo anesthesia for a medical procedure, but it has never been used to remove the president from office. While never used for that purpose, there is little doubt that the vice president and the cabinet members possess the power to do so, but what happens if they do?
After a majority of the cabinet and the vice president decide that the president is unfit to fulfill the duties of the office, they would invoke the 25th Amendment, calling for the president to step down from office. If the president objects, the amendment requires a ⅔ majority vote in both houses of Congress to override the objection.
As Zelden said, “It’s not an easy process to be done, but it’s there.”
With President Trump’s term as the president of the United States coming to a close tomorrow, there is little chance that the 25th Amendment will have any effect on the outcome of the transition of power. However, it is sure to gain a few lines in the history book that will recount the unprecedented events of the past two weeks.
