John Bolton argues against invoking 25th Amendment against Trump

John Bolton, who served as President Trump’s national security adviser for more than a year, argued against removing him from office with less than two weeks left in his term amid growing calls from lawmakers to do so.

“For anybody to advocate removing him from office or trying to remove him from office, they have to be able to prove that the effort would make things better,” Bolton said in an interview with The Hill. “And I’m not denying the problem that exists, but I don’t think there’s any real logic to either alternative measured against the question would it make things better.”

Democrats and even a few Republicans have called for Trump to be removed via Section Four of the 25th Amendment, wherein the vice president and a majority of Cabinet officials would sign a letter to Congress saying the president is not fit to serve.

A growing number of lawmakers have called for Trump to resign or be removed after he incited his protesters to march down to the Capitol on Wednesday, where they broke into the building to halt the count of the 2020 electoral votes. The pro-Trump rioters overwhelmed police and forced both chambers of Congress to evacuate. One woman was killed in the chaos.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday called for Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, warning that she was prepared to move forward with impeachment proceedings if he did not. Former White House chief of staff John Kelly told CNN that he would vote to remove Trump if he were still in the Cabinet.

But Bolton, who resigned from his post amid disagreements with Trump in September 2019 and has since been openly critical of his conduct, called Section Four of the 25th Amendment “probably the worst written provision of the Constitution” and cautioned it could cause additional headaches for the nation at a time when Trump is so close to leaving office.

“It has never been used before, and the idea that you’re going to try to trigger it now for the first time and risk having two presidents simultaneously I just think is a fool’s errand,” he said.

Bolton envisioned a scenario in which Pence would produce a letter to the Speaker and Senate pro tempore calling for Trump’s removal, only for Trump to resist and declare he is able to carry out his duties as president. Trump could potentially fire the Cabinet officials who called for his removal and replace them with loyalists, he added.

“And that even assumes that Pence could do this and not have it leak,” Bolton said. “Which would make it the first effort in the entire Trump administration that didn’t leak.”

“It gives aid and comfort to our adversaries internationally, too. And the same would be true with the impeachment effort,” Bolton continued. “So, you’re going to make Pence president for six days, seven days. Really? What does that achieve exactly?”

A source confirmed to The Hill on Wednesday night that there has been chatter among administration staffers about invoking the 25th Amendment in response to the Capitol riots. But it was not clear whether it was being discussed at the Cabinet level, and it had not reached the vice president.

Trump, in a statement issued through White House aide Dan Scavino early Thursday morning, committed to a peaceful transition on Jan. 20. But he still has yet to condemn the violence at the Capitol or acknowledge the reality that he fairly and legitimately lost the election to President-elect Joe Biden.