Is Nancy Pelosi angling for the 25th Amendment against Donald Trump?

| 3:00 pm EDT May 23, 2019
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Last night Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin, who has reportedly been pushing Speaker Nancy Pelosi behind the scenes to begin impeachment against Donald Trump, appeared on MSNBC and curiously floated a different strategy: the 25th Amendment. It stood out, both because no one has been talking about it lately, and because Congress can’t invoke it anyway. But this morning, Speaker Nancy Pelosi emphatically went there.

Nancy Pelosi publicly stated earlier today that Donald Trump is unwell, and that he needs an intervention, and that he may need a “leave of absence.” When she was later asked about her remarks by reporter Glenn Thrush, she said this: “Statutory intervention? That would be good. Article 25. That’s a good idea. I’ll take it up with my caucus, not that they haven’t been thinking about it.” Wait a minute, this might actually be going somewhere.

No, Mike Pence and the cabinet aren’t going to suddenly invoke the 25th Amendment today and remove Donald Trump from office. Nor is Trump going to voluntarily invoke the 25th Amendment today and walk away. But by merely accusing Trump of being grossly unfit for office, she’s setting up two possible outcomes.

One is that, as Trump continues losing court rulings and comes closer to having his tax returns and financial crimes, exposed, he’ll need to consider a way out, and voluntarily walking away could be it. The other is that, by making these kinds of remarks, Pelosi is (purposely, we think) trying to push Trump over the edge to where he’s so far gone, his own party decides it has to make a move against him, if only selfishly to try to save its own political future.

One thing to keep in mind: as things stand now politically, impeachment would have no chance of ousting Donald Trump from office. Senate Republicans won’t do the right thing and oust Trump, unless the political landscape changes to the point that ousting him would happen to be the best selfish choice for themselves. Even as Pelosi and House Democrats seek to destroy Trump with evidence and hearings and court victories, it looks like she’s trying to get Trump and the GOP to implode from within.