PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Thirteen days stand between the presidential transition of power.
After Congress certified Joe Biden’s electoral victory overnight, President Donald Trump said it represents “the end of the greatest first term in presidential history.” Still, he acknowledged the president-elect and promised an “orderly transition.”
His full early-morning statement reads: “Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!”
In the meantime, some Cabinet members have discussed invoking the 25th Amendment — removing the president from office due to incapacity.
CBS News legal analyst Thane Rosenbaum, who joined KYW Newsradio live Thursday morning with anchor Ian Bush, said invoking the 25th Amendment would be the fastest way for legislators to take action, if they so choose.
Given the timeframe until Biden’s inauguration, he’s not sure if that will happen, though debating the 25th Amendment is justified, said Rosenbaum.
“I do think that the president’s statement was essential because there isn’t any question that he assisted in inciting a riot against the Capitol building of the United States,” said Rosenbaum. “So then the question is, what was going to happen on the morning after? Is there a leader of this insurrection? Some people would think it was President Trump, so we needed him to say, ‘No there is no insurrection, and I will be leaving in two weeks now that the process has finally been concluded.’
“What might have been an experiment in representative democracy, where tens of thousands of people show up under their First Amendment rights — freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, to express their views and their opinions,” he said, “it could have been something that showed the strength of our democracy, and instead was something that made us look anti-democratic from its core.”
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Impeachment is another course of action — one already taken.
Symbolically, Rosenbaum said, there is nothing stopping Congress from expediting that process, even though it normally requires a vote on whether or not to even begin the process of impeachment. However, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said last time that an initial vote wasn’t necessary.
“So in theory,” he said, “they could vote. And again, I think it would be really a message, because clearly there is not enough time to conduct a Senate trial, have the president removed from office. But I do think it would send a very, very, very strong message that what just happened was, as the president uses the word, “disgraceful,” and so unbecoming of the longest-serving democracy in the world.”
There’s also the possibility of criminal charges for essentially the treasonous incitement of an insurrection against the United States.
“But again, those are legal processes, and that requires time to get those in play,” Rosenbaum said. “The 25th Amendment would be the quickest thing that could be done.”
However, a president can dispute the claim for his removal.
Kermit Roosevelt, University of Pennsylvania law professor and constitutional law expert, argued the 25th Amendment is harder than impeachment.
“You actually end up with Congress trying it, and you need two-thirds of both houses to keep the president out of power,” he said.
“It’s true that he’s not in office very much longer, but impeachment does carry a penalty of being barred from holding federal office again, which may be something that people think is worth doing.”
Rosenbaum added a clear message is needed.
“If they invoke the 25th Amendment, it’s not like they’re giving (Trump) a psychological test. It’s really symbolic. It’s a message from the people of the United States that what just happened now is not who we are, and the eyes of the world were watching and the United States should feel very embarrassed the morning after.”
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