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- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Jamie Raskin, plan to introduce a bill to create a panel known as an Oversight Commission on Presidential Capacity, to “help ensure effective and uninterrupted leadership” within the presidency.
- The move comes after President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19 last week.
- During the vice-presidential debate on Wednesday, both Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris fielded a question asking what they would do in the event that their respective presidential candidate is unable to serve.
- Pence was asked in the context of Trump’s recent COVID-19 diagnosis, but instead, he dodged the question to respond to Harris’ attacks on the fast-tracked coronavirus vaccine.
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday she had plans to introduce legislation related to the 25th Amendment, which lays out the transfer of power in the event a president can no longer serve.
Pelosi and Rep. Jamie Raskin plan to introduce a bill creating a commission to “help ensure effective and uninterrupted leadership in the highest office in the Executive Branch of government,” according to reports.
“Tomorrow, by the way, tomorrow, come here tomorrow,” Pelosi told reporters Thursday. “We’re going to be talking about the 25th Amendment.”
According to a summary of a similar bill put forth by Raskin in 2017, per the parameters of the 25th Amendment, through legislation, Congress could activate the Oversight Commission on Presidential Capacity, to “determine whether the President is mentally or physically unable to discharge the powers and duties of office.”
The 25th Amendment formally outlines the transition of power if the president is unable or unfit to serve, stating that, if the president dies, resigns, or is removed from office, the vice president then becomes president. If the president is unable to fulfill his duties, he can also temporarily transfer powers to the vice president.
President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19 last week and spent several days in Walter Reed Medical Center over the weekend, before being discharged on Monday evening. On Thursday night, Trump told Fox News’s Sean Hannity he was doing “great.”
During the vice-presidential debate on Wednesday, both Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris fielded a question asking what they would do in the event that their respective presidential candidate is unable to serve.
Pence was asked in the context of Trump’s recent COVID-19 diagnosis, but instead, he dodged the question to respond to Harris’ attacks on the fast-tracked coronavirus vaccine.
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