Republican legal expert proposes installing Hillary Clinton as U.S. President

| 8:17 pm EST November 22, 2017
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With each passing day it becomes more clear that Donald Trump and his campaign illegally conspired with the Russian government to rig the election in his favor, and that his presidency is therefore illegitimate. Despite a whole lot of wishful thinking, various legal experts have confirmed that there is nothing in the Constitution that would allow the election result to be “nullified” under any circumstances. However, a respected legal expert – and a Republican no less – is proposing a different method for installing Hillary into her rightfully elected role as U.S. President.

Richard W. Painter is a Law Professor at the University of Minnesota and the former chief White House ethics lawyer for the George W. Bush administration. More recently he’s become a leading voice in exposing Donald Trump’s crimes in office, even while staunchly remaining a Republican. On Wednesday evening, he posted this tweet: “Not sure why Clinton isn’t running for a House seat. Dems could elect her Speaker. Then ….. It’s Mueller time.”

Painter didn’t flesh out his thoughts any further, but it’s clear where he’s going with this. If Hillary Clinton is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018, and if the Democrats win the majority in the House in that same election cycle, and if the Democrats then elect Hillary as Speaker of the House, and if Robert Mueller’s investigation provides enough evidence for Donald Trump and Mike Pence to be impeached and simultaneously removed, Hillary Clinton would in fact become President of the United States based on the order of succession spelled out in the 25th Amendment.

In real world terms, this is an extreme long shot. All of the above would need to happen in a specific order, and there is no indication that Hillary Clinton is seeking to make it happen. But this is notable because, while the idea of ushering Hillary into the presidency through this method has been floated before, this is the first time it’s been floated by a prominent public figure. It’s even more notable that it’s being floated by a Republican, who clearly believes it’s simply the Constitutionally fair thing to do.