In the face of their incompetence, today’s situation requires emergency measures.
Recently, Yale Law School professor E. Donald Elliott, a first-rate lawyer and regulatory expert, wrote in TAS that a little-known provision in the 25th Amendment can be used to swiftly toss the sitting president and vice president, and replace them with competent, trusted leadership for the remainder of the Biden-Harris term. The provision, in the Amendment’s involuntary disability paragraph, sec. 4, contains the following sentence, the last 11 words of which one might call section 4’s Emergency Clause:
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide.… (Emphasis mine.)
In support of his idea, he argued: Most voters, across the political spectrum, see Biden and Harris as manifestly unable to govern — the former clearly beset by cognitive deficiency; the latter — like many vice presidents — chosen for political appeal, despite lacking basic issue knowledge or executive ability. Hence, Congress should call upon Biden and Harris to both resign voluntarily. If either or both refuse, Congress should activate section 4’s Emergency Clause, and schedule a plebiscite. The House and Senate should each vote by simple majority for a recall election, asking a majority of the electorate to vote that neither is capable of discharging the “powers & duties” of their respective offices, and to replace them with a caretaker national unity government. If a majority votes to recall both, Congress would pick two replacement leaders who are trusted by both sides. An illustrative example Professor Elliott offered was to have top Democrat Leon Panetta serve as president, and respected Republican Robert Gates — who served in the Bush 43 and Obama cabinets, to serve as Panetta’s vice president. Other respected figures could well fill the bill.
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In the face of their incompetence, today’s situation requires emergency measures.
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Recently, Yale Law School professor E. Donald Elliott, a first-rate lawyer and regulatory expert, wrote in TAS that a little-known provision in the 25th Amendment can be used to swiftly toss the sitting president and vice president, and replace them with competent, trusted leadership for the remainder of the Biden-Harris term. The provision, in the Amendment’s involuntary disability paragraph, sec. 4, contains the following sentence, the last 11 words of which one might call section 4’s Emergency Clause:
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Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or *of such other body as Congress may by law provide.…* (Emphasis mine.)
>
In support of his idea, he argued: Most voters, across the political spectrum, see Biden and Harris as manifestly unable to govern — the former clearly beset by cognitive deficiency; the latter — like many vice presidents — chosen for political appeal, despite lacking basic issue knowledge or executive ability. Hence, Congress should call upon Biden and Harris to both resign voluntarily. If either or both refuse, Congress should activate section 4’s Emergency Clause, and schedule a plebiscite. The House and Senate should each vote by simple majority for a recall election, asking a majority of the electorate to vote that neither is capable of discharging the “powers & duties” of their respective offices, and to replace them with a caretaker national unity government. If a majority votes to recall both, Congress would pick two replacement leaders who are trusted by both sides. An illustrative example Professor Elliott offered was to have top Democrat Leon Panetta serve as president, and respected Republican Robert Gates — who served in the Bush 43 and Obama cabinets, to serve as Panetta’s vice president. Other respected figures could well fill the bill.
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