Pelosi’s 25th Amendment Bid Gets US Congress to Discuss Trump’s Removal

WASHINGTON, KOMPAS.com - Nancy Pelosi announced legislation that would create a commission to allow Congress to intervene under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.

The US House Speaker’s move came as she and fellow Democrats question President Donald Trump’s fitness to serve.

Pelosi’s 25th Amendment bid would allow the removal of the president from executive duties.

With only a few weeks left before the US elections on November 3, Nancy Pelosi asserted for President Donald Trump to disclose more about his health after he tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this month.

Read also: Trump Joins List of World Leaders Diagnosed with the Coronavirus

Pelosi noted Trump's “strange tweet” halting talks on a new coronavirus aid package — he subsequently tried to reverse course — and said Americans need to know when, exactly, he first contracted the Covid-19 virus as others as a White House outbreak grows.

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On Friday, Nancy Pelosi plans to roll out the legislation that would launch the commission for review.

“The public needs to know the health condition of the president,” Pelosi said, later invoking the 25th Amendment, which allows a president's cabinet or Congress to intervene when a president is unable to conduct the duties of the office.

Trump responded swiftly via Twitter.

“Crazy Nancy is the one who should be under observation. They don’t call her Crazy for nothing!” the president said.

Read also: Trump Again Downplays Virus as White House Outbreak Spreads

The president's opponents have discussed invoking the 25th Amendment for some time, but are raising it now, so close to Election Day, as the campaigns are fast turning into a referendum on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 210,000 Americans have died and millions more infected by the virus that shows no signs of abating heading into what public health experts warn will be a difficult flu season and winter.

Trump says he “feels great” after being hospitalized and is back at work in the White House. But his doctors have given mixed signals about his diagnosis and treatment. Trump plans to resume campaigning soon.

Congress is not in legislative session, and so any serious consideration of Nancy Pelosi's 25th Amendment bid, let alone votes in the House or Senate, is unlikely.