U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Sunday dismissed as “absurd” rumors about cabinet members discussing using the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump.
.@GStephanopoulos: “Have you ever been part of any discussion on perusing the 25th Amendment as a member of the cabinet?”
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley: “I have never been part of it, I’ve never heard it … that’s absurd” https://t.co/27WaWwocZV #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/TZEAO2QejE
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) September 23, 2018
“I have never been part of it,” Haley told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “I have never heard it. I don’t think that’s a reality at all among all the cabinet members. I’ve just never heard that. That’s absurd.”
The 25th Amendment, particularly Section 4, has been in the news of late after an anonymous New York Times op-ed written by a senior Trump administration official claimed there were “early whispers within the cabinet” of invoking it to forcibly remove President Trump from office. Additionally, the New York Times later reported that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein also discussed invoking the amendment. (RELATED: Mike Pompeo Has Some Advice For Rod Rosenstein In Wake Of NYT Report)
Section 4 of the amendment allows 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” to declare the president “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” via written Congressional declaration.
The amendment, introduced in 1965 and ratified two years later, was originally written in the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination as a way to ensure presidential leadership in the event a sitting president is incapacitated and unable to perform his or her duties.