I recall hearing something about some cabinet members considering the 25th Amendment after January 6th but I don’t think it was ever confirmed. The new Karl book has the details. It turns out that two of Trump’s most loyal henchmen, people who backed every crackpot proclamation and policy he ever proposed, thought about it for a couple of minutes and then dropped it allegedly because it would be too hard.
Top aides to former President Trump mulled a plan to use the 25th Amendment to remove him from office after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to a new book.
ABC News’s Jonathan Karl writes in “Betrayal” that then-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin spoke with other Cabinet members including then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about attempting to remove Trump from office through the 25th Amendment, according to excerpts published by MSNBC.
Karl, during an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” early Monday, said Pompeo “asked for a legal analysis of the 25th Amendment and how it would work,” but the idea was “quickly jettisoned” the next day once the officials recognized how difficult the path for such an effort would be, namely as then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and then-Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao were resigning.
“It would not be quick enough and it would be subject to legal challenges,” Karl said on MSNBC.
“But in the hours after the riot, there were high-level conversations about this,” he emphasized.
Karl attributes the reporting to “a source familiar with the conversations,” and told the MSNBC hosts that his story is “rock solid.”
He said that despite multiple attempts to get in touch with Pompeo or Mnuchin to confirm the story, he had not received any communication, until he brought up the story to Trump.
During their final interview for the book, Karl asked the former president why the two men would not deny the story if it wasn’t true.
Karl told the MSNBC hosts that a few hours after that interview, he received the statement through Pompeo’s spokesperson, Rolling Stone reports.
“Pompeo through a spokesman denied there have ever been conversations around invoking the 25th Amendment,” according to Rolling Stone.
Yeah, right. They no doubt discussed it briefly and then realized that the MAGA faithful were dangerous and backed off. Mnuchin no doubt wanted to preserve his massive grift in the middle east and Pompeo is clearly running for president if Trump somehow shuffles off his mortal coil before 2024.
They were almost certainly weighing the political downsides of controlling an out of control, would be dictator and decided it wasn’t worth the risk. Another couple of profiles in courage.