White House aides were certain Pence would support invoking 25th amendment to force Trump from office, anonymous official writes in upcoming book

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White House aides were certain Pence would support invoking 25th amendment to force Trump from office, anonymous official writes in upcoming book

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Trump Pence

CBS

Donald Trump with Mike Pence during a "60 Minutes" interview.

  • White House aides believed Vice President Mike Pence could support using the US Constitution to push President Donald Trump from power, according to an upcoming book.
  • Excerpts from "A Warning," by an anonymous Trump official, were published ahead of its release by HuffPost's Yashar Ali.
  • They describe internal discussions of the 25th Amendment, which allows the vice president to take over the US government if the president is deemed incapable.
  • The excerpts said that Pence would only go for it if he had the support of a majority of Trump's cabinet.
  • Pence has strongly denied supporting such a move. Many Washington insiders also rubbished the idea.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

White House officials believed that Vice President Mike Pence could support forcing Trump from power via the US Constitution's 25th Amendment, according to an upcoming book.

Leaked portions of "A Warning," written by an anonymous Trump official, claim that aides thought Pence could back a plan to use Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to take over the US government.

HuffPost's Yashar Ali obtained excerpts of the book prior to its release on November 19.

Section 4 of the amendment describes how a president who is unable to govern can be replaced by the vice president. It has never been used.

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Pence's support, the book excerpt said, was understood by the officials to be conditional on support from a majority of cabinet members.

Pence has in the past strongly denied suggestions that he considered using the 25th Amendment. On Wednesday, Katie Waldman, Pence's press secretary, called the claim "FAKE NEWS".

One part of the text details alleged internal discussions about who might sign a letter aimed at activating the 25th amendment.

The book, written by a current or former White House official, said the officials were convinced Pence would support the move if the cabinet support were there, per HuffPost.

The conversations were prompted by Trump's "unhinged" behavior following the impromptu firing of then-FBI director James Comey, HuffPost wrote.

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The book's author has raised 25th amendment before.

In a 2018 op-ed for The New York Times, which caused a firestorm at the time, the official wrote: "Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the Cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis."

Pence then denied that he had ever been a part of those discussions, saying so at the time in an interview with Margaret Brennan, moderator of the CBS show "Face the Nation."

Shortly after Ali shared the article on Twitter, people were quick to dispute the claim.

Axios's Jonathan Swan wrote in a now-deleted tweet that it was "hilarious nonsense" that Pence would support invoking the 25th Amendment, which was retweeted by The Washington Post's Josh Dawsey and Donald Trump Jr.

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Jonathan Swan tweet

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Representatives from the White House did not immediately respond to emails for comment from Business Insider.

Read the full article at HuffPost »

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