Pleading the Twenty-Fifth

Liberals thought they would be rid of Donald Trump forever after Hillary Clinton's Election as the 45th President of the United States.  After the Donald surprised everybody by actually beating Mrs. Clinton,  several washed-up Hollywood celebrities appeared in a video asking Republican members of the Electoral College to vote against him.  Needless to say, that effort failed.  If only celebrities actually kept their promises to leave the country if he was elected.  (They only made that promise because they thought for sure he would lose).  The country would be a lot better off if they did.    

Since Donald Trump became the 45^th President of the United States, the Democrats have been obsessing over the idea that the President colluded with the Russians in order to pull off a victory.  This conspiracy theory allows the Democrats to paint Trump as an illegitimate President and avoid taking any responsibility for their unexpected loss in last year’s election.  After the President fired FBI Director James Comey in May, House Democrats Al Green and Brad Sherman began drafting articles of impeachment; arguing that the President obstructed justice by firing the man in charge of the Russia investigation.  That is a foolish argument; since the Russia investigation continues in spite of Comey’s absence.  A special counsel now oversees that investigation thanks to Comey’s leaked memo detailing a conversation he had with the President regarding the investigation into Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn; where the President allegedly told the former FBI Director “I hope you can let this go.”  Conservatives have been told to believe that it’s a mere coincidence that Robert Mueller, the Special Counsel, is good buddies with Comey.  Outside of Capitol Hill, calls for the impeachment of President Trump came much earlier.  A book called The Case for Impeachment, written by American University history professor Allan Lichtman, was published in April; one month before Comey’s firing.  Following Comey’s firing, demands to impeach the President increased exponentially.  Rallies advocating for Trump’s impeachment were held all across the country yesterday.  Saul Alinsky would be so proud.              

But some liberals are convinced that there is just not enough evidence to justify impeachment.  To my liberal readers, relax; your allies in Congress already have a back-up plan in the works.  A bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives that would create an Oversight Commission on Presidential Capacity.  The proposed commission, which would exclude elected officials and members of the Armed Forces, would consist of a panel of eleven physicians appointed by members of both parties that would determine whether President Trump is “temporarily or permanently impaired by physical illness or disability, mental illness, mental deficiency, or alcohol or drug use.” One would only believe that President Trump fits any of those descriptions if their TV diet consists of a daily dose of “Morning Joe”, where the President has been referred to as “either a dictator in the making or not well.”  About two dozen Democrats have agreed to cosponsor the bill, which was first introduced at the beginning of April but has received more attention in the wake of President Trump’s tweets about MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski.    All of the sponsors and cosponsors who have signed onto the bill represent districts where Trump won an average of 24.14 percent of the vote in November.  In other words, as a whole, their constituents despise the President.  Therefore, these representatives have no fear of electoral backlash for supporting this bill.  

 

 

 

Section 4 of the 25^th Amendment is the justification for crafting this bill. The hashtag #25thAmendmentNow is trending on Twitter.  Section 4 of the 25^th Amendment is the only part of the amendment that has never been invoked.  The text of Section 4 of the 25^th Amendment reads “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.”  In order for this scheme to actually work, the Vice President has to be on board.  Until then, the invocation of Section 4 remains a pipe dream. 

 

In Obama’s America, the Democrats’ favorite Constitutional Amendment was the Fifth Amendment, which is designed to prevent self-incrimination.  Nine members of the Obama Administration pleaded the fifth while testifying in front of Congress.  In Trump’s America, the 25^th Amendment is the Democrats’ new favorite; representing their latest attempt to prevent Donald Trump from Making America Great Again.  Their least favorite Amendment continues to be the Second Amendment.  Perhaps some on the left think that all the talk of impeachment and invoking the 25^th Amendment will be enough to get President Trump to resign like Richard Nixon did.  Apparently, these people fail to realize that our President is not a quitter.  He is not one who melts under pressure.  In fact, one could argue that all of this pressure actually makes him stronger.  Liberals can keep pleading the twenty-fifth all they want but their pleas will continue to fall on deaf ears.