After the storming of Capitol Hill, calling for the 25th Amendment
The rumors about attempts to remove Donald Trump from the White House after the assault on Capitol Hill they had already appeared in the press, in the last days of the former tycoon’s presidential term. But never as this time, the ‘conspirators’ are given a very specific identity, at the highest levels of the Administration. Discussing Trump’s early removal, invoking the 25th Amendment, would have been the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and the former treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, by the way, two of Trump’s loyalists.
This is what he claims Washington correspondent for ABC, Jonathan Karl, in his book ‘Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show‘, from today in bookstores. According to Karl, it was Mnuchin who took the initiative and discussed the possibility of invoking with other members of the government the 25th Amendment, introduced in the US Constitution in 1963 after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which governs the removal of an incumbent president due to mental or physical incapacity. The amendment has never been used so far. The discussion would take place the night of January 6, the day of the attack on Capitol Hill and the day after.
The removal of Trump, accused of inciting the mob that marched on Washington, would have required a majority vote of the government members. For this, writes Karl, Mnuchin turned to Mike Pompeo, one of Trump’s strongest allies in the administration. Mnuchin, reports the Guardian, declined to comment on the book by the ABC journalist. As for Pompeo, writes Karl, through a spokesman he “denied that there was ever a conversation to invoke the 25th amendment”.
‘The process would have taken too long’
But, according to the reporter, Pompeo actually asked for an analysis from the legal point of view of the process necessary to invoke the amendment of the Constitution. “The analysis determined that it would take too long – writes Karl – considering that Trump would have remained in office for only 14 days, any attempt to forcibly remove him would have been contested from a legal point of view “.
According to the reporter’s account, among those in favor of the removal of the former president were the minister of education Betsy DeVos, and that of transport, Elaine Chao. Both resigned, however, after the assault on the Capitol. Not a minor detail, Chao is married to the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, who broke up with Trump following the events of January 6.
Karl also said that in the aftermath of the attack on Capitol Hill, in which five people died, “at least two government ministers” they asked Vice President Mike Pence to call an executive meeting. Pence did not, writes the reporter, making it clear that there is no evidence that the vice president was also involved in discussions regarding the 25th amendment. The request to start the process to remove Trump from the White House prematurely was addressed to Pence on January 7 by the speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leader of the Senate, Chuck Schumer. The vice president waited five days and then said no.
Source-www.adnkronos.com