House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a new bill authorizing Congress to determine whether a president is fit for office but claimed the measure is not about President Trump.
Rather, Pelosi said, it’s intended to outline a plan to oversee future presidents and ensure continuity under the 25th Amendment.
“This is not about President Trump,” Pelosi, a California Democrat, told reporters. “He will face the judgment of the voters. But he shows the need for us to have a process for future presidents.”
Pelosi said the bill is meant to ensure the continuity of government if the president becomes physically or mentally incapacitated. The bill would appoint a 17-member commission of experts, including medical doctors, who would determine whether the president is capable of remaining in office if events warrant it.
The measure would require the president to undergo a physical examination if ordered by the commission.
“A president’s fitness must be determined by science and facts,” Pelosi said, adding that a president’s fitness would be determined “by a professional medical diagnosis.”
The measure was first introduced in 2017 by Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who is a staunch opponent of Trump.
Democrats have criticized Trump for his response to the coronavirus, including how he handled his own infection. Trump was treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for three days but is recovered and expected to return to the campaign trail Saturday. Pelosi has accused Trump of concealing when he first contracted the virus and has demanded to know the date of his last negative test.
She has also questioned his judgment under the influence of Regeneron, which was administered to the president to treat the virus.
The measure stands little chance of becoming law during this Congress because the GOP-led Senate will ignore it.
Reporters questioned Pelosi’s political motives and whether this is just another attempt to try to remove Trump from office or raise questions about his fitness close to the Nov. 3 election.
Pelosi insisted the measure is not political but rather sets up a way for Congress to fill vacant positions if the president is incapacitated. The bill would establish how lawmakers elect a new vice president, for example.
“There’s been a call for, ‘Why not execute the 25th Amendment?'” Pelosi said, referring to Trump’s capacity to serve. “That’s not what we are doing.”
Pelosi repeated it’s not about ousting Trump and defended her comments questioning his mental capacity while taking drugs to treat the coronavirus.
“There are medical professional who say certain drugs can affect mental judgment,” Pelosi said. “I don’t know.”
Pelosi later said that anyone taking the same medication is “clearly in an altered state.”
She pointed out the commission would be bipartisan and would work in consultation with the vice president.
“We would like to have it in place for future presidents,” Pelosi said, adding that it would apply to Trump if he wins in November. “It’s not about the election at all. The timing is for now because people want to know based on a medical decision with the full involvement of the vice president of the United States.”
Raskin said that “we’re living in an age of a lot of chaos” and added that the measure is needed because the 25th Amendment does not make clear “who has the powers” if a president “ends up in a coma or on a ventilator and has made no provisions for the temporary transfer of power. And so, Congress has a role to play, and that must be totally bicameral and totally bipartisan.”
