By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) – U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland told fellow House Democrats on Friday that he will introduce legislation creating a commission to facilitate the removal of any president deemed unable to carry out their duties, according to a House Judiciary Committee spokeswoman.
A “Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of the Office” bill was first introduced by Raskin, now the senior Democrat on the committee, in 2020, when Donald Trump was in his first presidential term.
In recent days, Democrats in Congress have begun talking about pushing for the impeachment of Trump, now in his second term, or trying to trigger the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which provides the bare-bones process for taking away a president’s power in a procedure separate from impeachment.
Trump earlier this week caused widespread alarm and anger after he said “a whole civilization will die” in Iran unless its government agreed to allow ships to freely pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Shipping there has been interrupted following Trump’s decision to launch, along with Israel, a military attack on Iran that began on February 28.
The Raskin legislation is unlikely to advance in the Republican-controlled House, where Speaker Mike Johnson is a strong defender of Trump.
Republicans in the House and Senate have blocked Democrats’ moves to pass a separate resolution to end the Iran war that was never authorized by Congress.
The Raskin bill would create a 17-member bipartisan commission if it is determined that the president cannot perform the duties of the office because of physical disability or mental deficiency or because of drug or alcohol use or other conditions.
Trump was subjected to two impeachment proceedings during his first term, each of which ended with acquittal by the Republican-controlled Senate.
Since then, most Democrats have shied away from talking about impeachment. But Trump’s latest military foray in Iran and his failure to lay out clear objectives have emboldened many Democrats to begin talking about removing Trump from power – a strategy that is not necessarily embraced by all in the party caucus.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
