It’s time we invoke the Constitution to remove President Donald Trump from office, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Thursday.
In light of the anonymous op-ed by a senior Trump official published Wednesday in The New York Times, Warren told CNN that officials should consider using the provisions of the 25th Amendment, which allows the vice president to take over in case the president is removed from office, dies, resigns or is incapacitated.
“If senior administration officials think the president of the United States is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th Amendment,” Warren said.
The anonymous author wrote in the Times op-ed that, early in Trump’s term, there were whispers among his team of doing just that, but they backed down to avoid a complicated process they thought could trigger a constitutional crisis.
“The Constitution provides for a procedure whenever the vice president and senior officials think the president can’t do his job. It does not provide that senior officials go around the president ― take documents off his desk, write anonymous op-eds,” she continued, referencing the op-ed’s claims that high-ranking officials are secretly combating Trump ideas that they believe are detrimental to the nation.
“Every one of these officials have sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States,” Warren said. “It’s time for them to do their job,”
Trump — who’s made his disdain for Warren clear, often with the use of a Native American slur — has raised hell over the op-ed and demanded the Times reveal the author.
This isn’t the first time Trump’s capacity to hold office has come up as grounds for his removal. Last December, lawmakers concerned about the president’s mental state held a private meeting with Dr. Bandy X. Lee, an assistant clinical professor in psychiatry at Yale University.
“He’s going to unravel,” she said of her Trump assessment in an interview with Politico, “and we are seeing the signs.”