A new resolution introduced in the House of Representatives would encourage the vice president and the Cabinet to have President Donald Trump undergo a physical and mental health exam to determine if he is stable enough to stay in office.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) introduced the resolution on Friday. Should the results of said exam be unfavorable, the resolution calls for Vice President Mike Pence and members of the Cabinet to remove Trump from office.
The move would invoke the 25th Amendment, a rarely used constitutional provision that allows the vice president and a majority of Cabinet members to jointly remove the president from office and replace him with the vice president.
In a statement announcing the resolution, Lofgren asked if the president suffers “from early stage dementia.”
“Has emotional disorder so impaired the President that he is unable to discharge his duties,” she continued. “Is the President mentally and emotionally stable?”
Lofgren pointed out that Trump has not yet released a “serious” medical evaluation to the public.
Lofgren, who represents California’s 19th District, is not a professional psychiatrist or psychologist, according to Mercury News.
She doesn’t expect the resolution to pass, but she told the newspaper “it will stimulate conversation,” adding that Trump would get the evaluation if “he cares about the country.”
Lofgren has often criticized Trump’s remarks and policies throughout his presidency. The representative suggested on Tuesday that “something is seriously wrong with President Trump,” responding to his off-the-cuff remarks on the Charlottesville white supremacist riot made during an impromptu Q&A with reporters in New York.
“Why can’t he just condemn Nazis,” she asked on Twitter. “Unscripted words today show who he really is. Shameful!”
Lofgren isn’t the first politician or critic to suggest invoking the 25th Amendment to boot the 45th president out of the White House.
In June, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) led 25 House Democrats to co-sign a bill that would create a congressional commission able to oust Trump from the Oval Office under the amendment. Commenting on his bill, Raskin told Yahoo News “in case of emergency, break glass.”
Articles and op-eds exploring the 25th Amendment in detail have also been published in the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, New York Times and Time Magazine since Trump took office. Meanwhile, Trump has continued to draw ire across the country for issues such as his harsh policies on immigration, his travel bans agains people from predominantly Muslim countries, his push to pass health care bills that would lead to millions losing coverage and his remarks suggesting there were “fine people” among those attending a white supremacist rally.
This summer, the hashtag #25thAmendment began trending on Twitter.
That’s why Lofgren is calling for Pence and other Cabinet members to “quickly secure ... medical and psychiatric professionals” to evaluate Trump’s mental health and any possible impairments.
“If it was a physical ailment, you would be getting the advice of doctors,” Lofgren told Mercury News. “The same thing should be true to take a look at his stability here.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story mischaracterized the resolution. It is not a bill, and its text “urges” but does not mandate that the president undergo mental health evaluation.
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