By Samantha Lewis
Ever since President Donald Trump was elected into office, people have discussed impeachment. The 25th Amendment could be used to get him out. This sparked rumors that some of the officials in the White House were discussing removing the amendment. The 25th Amendment, however, is a vital part of America and the Constitution and is highly needed.
Without it, it would be much harder to impeach Trump. However, it will be needed in the future as it has in the past. Without it, the United States would go into chaos.
Section one of the 25th Amendment states that in case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the vice president shall become president. According to The Establishment and First Uses of the 25th amendment, the amendment has been used a total of six times since it was ratified on July 6, 1965.
“The 25th Amendment is painfully ambiguous not only as to the meaning of ‘unable to discharge.’ but also as to who may do what to get this Rube Goldberg machine going. And that is a recipe for instability and chaos, the very outcome that those advocating the use of the amendment should be seeking to avoid,” said Elizabeth Warren in an article by CNN.
The amendment has greatly helped the nation when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was able to become the new president in a matter of hours. If Johnson did not become president during these hours, the United States ultimately would have entered chaos.
In simple terms, the last section of the 25th Amendment says that if the vice president or any other officials in the White House think the current president is not able to complete his job well, they can work to remove him from office.
An article by Joshua Calpunn from the newspaper Breitbart states, “Holder, echoing a common ‘resistance’ talking point about being Donald Trump mentally unfit to be president, asked if the president and ‘Crazy Louie’ were ‘nuts.’ He concluded the tweet with the acronym ‘TFA,’ which according to disgraced White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, is a reference to the evoking of the 25th Amendment.”
On Sept. 5, The New York Times released an anonymous op-ed written by a Trump senior official about there being a resistance inside the White House. The 25th Amendment could remove him Trump legally by following the constitution. Without this, it would be much more difficult for the resistance to get the current president out of office.
Some people believe that the 25th Amendment has no purpose in the Constitution and that it should be taken out. They believe that ultimately, the only people who should have a say who is the president and who is not, is the American people and the 25th Amendment is too complicated to work.
However, the people do not know as much about politics as the people in the White House do. They should also have a right to decide if they think the President is right to lead the country. The amendment may be confusing and complicated, but the meaning has been simplified to the truth by multiple sources.
A website kidslaws stated in an article, “This is an emergency provision that allows the vice president and members of the cabinet to declare the president unfit to carry out the duties of the Presidency.” There are many more definitions like this that provide a simplified definition of this so-called “impossible to understand” amendment.
The 25th Amendment is the thing that keeps the United States sane whenever there is a crisis in the White House. Taking it away will not protect the current president or future presidents from being taken out of office; in the end, it will just make the process more difficult.