Joe Scarborough renewed his call for a “25th amendment” solution to Donald Trump on “Morning Joe” Thursday, reviving a polarizing idea that the president could be removed from office if the majority of his cabinet and the vice president declare him unfit to continue service.
Scarborough said Trump’s rambling 90-minute press conference on Wednesday — complete with a printout of his famous “Game of Thrones” inspired fan art — was another reminder that he was mentally unfit for the job.
“If we had a cabinet that was filled with people with more character — so many that had character have been fired — and if we had a House and Senate that took their job seriously, there would be people going up to the White House this morning saying ‘Mr President questions abound whether you are fit for this office. If this continues we are going to ask this cabinet to take a vote on whether you are fit for office and invoke the 25th amendment,’” Scarborough said.
Scarborough then said that if any of Trump’s 44 predecessors had behaved in a similar fashion, people would be saying the same thing.
“People are going to say ‘oh this is a bridge too far,’” he continued. “If any of the 44 presidents had behaved that way then those questions would have been raised. If Barack Obama had done that in 2013 those questions would have been raised by Republicans. They probably would have tried to start impeachment hearings … He is not fit. He is not acting fit.”
It’s far from the first time Scarborough has invoked the controversial idea. In October 2017, Scarborough went through a 25th amendment kick after a series of “Trump is melting down” pieces in the national press, in which he or his show suggested the move on at least three separate broadcasts.
“There’s something called the 25th amendment that they’re going to have to start looking at,” Scarborough on Oct. 11, 2017. “This is not acceptable as the status quo.”
But for all the bluster from Scarborough and other critics, the move is not known to have ever been attempted, and in 2019 there is no evidence it is seriously on anyone’s radar in Washington.