Former President Donald J. Trump on Saturday called for “modifying” the 25th Amendment to allow for the removal of a vice president who “lies or engages in a conspiracy to cover up the incapacity of the president,” a political nonstarter and the latest escalation of his attacks on President Joe Biden and the change atop the Democratic ticket.
“If you do that with a cover-up of the president of the United States, it’s grounds for impeachment immediately and removal from office, beause that’s what they did,” Trump said during a campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin.
The Harris campaign declined to comment on Trump’s remarks on Saturday.
The vice president has continued to defend Biden and his mental capacity, telling CNN last month that she doesn’t regret insisting in the weeks after the debate that Biden was fit to serve another four-year term.
The 25th Amendment lays out presidential succession and the process for removing a president, which would require the support of the vice president and a majority of the president’s Cabinet. It does not address forcibly removing a vice president. Ratifying a constitutional amendment requires the support of three-fourths of US states.
Impeachment, a separate process that wouldn’t require amending the Constitution, requires a simple majority vote in the House to adopt articles of impeachment and then a two-thirds vote in the Senate to convict. Trump was twice impeached by the House during his first term, but was not removed from office by the Senate.
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