House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks to reporters on Oct. 8. (Photo: Screen capture)
(CNSNews.com) – In an interview with Bloomberg TV on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “The President is, shall we say, in an altered state right now, so I don’t know how to answer for his behavior.”
Pelosi pointed to the President’s abrupt decision to call off negotiations on another COVID relief bill because Trump believed Pelosi was not negotiating in good faith.
Trump said he would be willing to sign a stand-alone bill that sends money to Americans who have run out of previous stimulus and can’t pay their bills, but Pelosi is holding firm to her $2.2 trillion HEROES bill, which includes non-COVID items.
“A lot of work has gone into it,” Pelosi told Bloomberg about the Democrats’ bill. “We would not have committed all of that time – well, time is everything. It is life. It is life. We are trying to save lives. We are not going to be enablers of more people dying because we walk away from the table. We are there, and I hope that they will be there.”
Pelosi expressed confidence in her negotiating partner Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, but she added, “I can’t answer for the President’s behavior.”
Pelosi suggested that medication given to Trump during his bout with COVID may have impaired his judgment:
“But, what I said about the President was that we don’t know if somebody –- I have not said this, I’ve quoted others to say there are those who say when you are on steroids and, or if you have COVID-19 or both, that there may be some impairment of judgment. But, again, that is for the doctors and the scientists to determine.
“But it was very strange, very surprising –- and I am rarely surprised -– when the President took to a tweet and saying that he wants the Senate to have full focus on the confirmation of the justice and turned attention away, and so we are stopping the negotiation.”
At an earlier news conference, Pelosi said President Trump’s “disassociation from reality would be funny if it weren’t so deadly.” She hinted at the next step to try to remove President Trump from office: the 25th Amendment, which deals with the president’s death or incapacity.
“I think that the public needs to know the health condition of the president,” Pelosi said. She told reporters to “come here tomorrow, we’re going to be talking about the 25th Amendment.”
Pelosi refused to say if the 25th Amendment should be invoked, or on what grounds it would be invoked.
Press reports say Pelosi intends to establish a commission on presidential capacity — a committee of medical experts who would assess the president more objectively, supposedly, than members of his own Cabinet would.
The legislation has no chance of passing right now, but it will be there if Trump wins re-election and Democrats take control of both the House and the Senate.
President Trump told Sean Hannity Thursday night he’s feeling fine: “I saw so many doctors looking over me, I think I’m the most analyzed human being in the world right now.”
Trump tweeted earlier on Thursday that “Crazy Nancy is the one who should be under observation. They don’t call her Crazy for nothing!”
The president also retweeted several supporters who wrote:
— Nancy Pelosi’s comment about the 25th amendment just tells you that the Democrats are already plotting to get Trump out once he wins…
— I wouldn’t put it past @SpeakerPelosi to stage a coup. She has already weaponized impeachment, what’s to keep her from weaponizing the 25th amendment? We need a new Speaker!
— If the polls are so accurate why are they wanting to use the 25th amendment ? They can’t wait 3 months ? They know Trump is gonna win.
(Again, the above three tweets are from Trump supporters, whom Trump retweeted.)
Section 4 of the 25th Amendment reads as follows. (Italics added to indicate what Pelosi has in mind):
Section 4. Whenever 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, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session.
If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
Also See:
Report: Bulk of Pelosi’s $2.2 Trillion ‘Coronavirus’ Bill Goes to Her ‘Wish List,’ Not to ‘Crush the Virus’
