Addressing the controversy surrounding the op-ed published in The New York Times this week in which a writer — not named or identified at all — claimed there is an internal “resistance” movement within the Trump administration, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) announced on Thursday that, in her mind, it’s time to use constitutional powers to remove President Donald Trump from office if others think he can’t do his job.
“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 to CNN.
“The Constitution provides for a procedure whenever the vice president and senior officials think the president can’t do his job,” she added. “It does not provide that senior officials go around the president — take documents off his desk, write anonymous op-eds … Every one of these officials have sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States. It’s time for them to do their job.”
The 25th Amendment allows the vice president to take over as president if the current commander-in-chief is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
The op-ed writer was identified as a “senior Trump administration official” who says he or she is part of an internal “resistance” working quietly within the administration to thwart parts of Trump’s agenda — expressing doubts about Trump’s fitness to lead, along with concerns over his “erratic” governing style.
“Let’s be clear,” Warren also said in a tweet. “We already have a constitutional crisis if the Cabinet believes the President of the United States can’t do his job and then refuses to follow the rules that have been laid down in the Constitution. They can’t have it both ways.”
She is also urging her campaign and political followers to sign up on her website — and tell the Trump Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment if the president can’t fulfill the duties of the office.
Warren, 69, recently released tax returns going back 10 years — perhaps laying the groundwork for a potential presidential run against Trump in 2020, as Fox News reported. And she’s running for re-election to the Senate in November.
President Trump has not taken kindly to this idea, naturally — and in a campaign-style rally in Billings, Montana, on Thursday night, he urged people to get out and vote for Republicans this fall in the midterm elections.
Trump called the hit piece “treason” and “subversion” during his Montana rally, and he said of the author, “It is really terrible. [The author is] an anonymous, gutless coward.”
Trump on Wednesday also called the anonymous piece published in The Times “gutless.”
“We have somebody in what I call ‘the failing New York Times’ that’s talking about … part of the resistance inside the Trump administration. This is what we have to deal with. And you know the dishonest media … But it’s really a disgrace.”
He addressed the controversy extensively during the Thursday night rally in Billings, Montana.
Melania Trump also issued a strong statement against the piece.
(photo credit, article image: Donald Trump, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore / Shutterstock)
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