House Democrats are straying into armchair-psychiatrist territory in an attempt to brand Donald Trump as unfit to hold office.
California Rep. Jackie Speier, a reliably liberal member of the House Intelligence Committee, told the Buzzfeed website that she has been consulting with mental health professionals about the president.
Another Democrat, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, made news in June when he proposed convening a special committee of psychiatrists and other doctors whose job would be to determine Trump’s sanity.
Speier and Raskin have failed to attract any Republicans to their banners.
‘It’s one thing from my non-professional, non-clinical standpoint [to] believe that someone does not have the capacity to do the job,’ Speier said Tuesday. ‘It’s another thing to talk to experts and [those] who can deal with mental psychosis on a daily basis, so I wanted to hear from them.’
California Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier, pictured participating in an animal rights event in July, has begun consulting with mental health professionals in the hope of having Donald Trump declared unfit to serve as president
No doctor has publicly declared anything resembling a psychiatric diagnosis of Trump, who could only be removed via impeachment or the 25th Amendment – which speaks to presidential disability
Separately, Yale University psychiatry professor Bandy Lee said a half-dozen House and Senate Democrats have sought her out.
Yale University psychiatrist Bandy Lee says at least a half-dozen House and Senate Democrats have sought her out to consult about Trump’s mental health
And Speier has spoken on the subject with psychologist John Gartner, who founded a political group called Duty to Warn.
That organization hangs its name on the longstanding principle that mental health professionals have an obligation to alert someone when their patients exhibit a likelihood or desire to harm themselves or others.
But that ethical concept requires an in-person evaluation in order to kick in; none of the psychiatrists or psychologists who have publicly opposed the president on mental health grounds have examined him.
Still, Duty to Warn has said Trump is ‘deeply and dangerously psychologically disordered.’
The American Psychiatric Association says that a ‘duty to warn … does not apply if there is no physician-patient relationship.’
Buzzfeed, a left-leaning publication, acknowledges that no physician has declared Trump is mentally deficient in any way.
Speier tweeted in August that it was ‘time to invoke the 25th Amendment,’ making it clear that she wants to make Trump an ex-president
Removing Trump from office is the longest of long-shots, but keeping the idea alive allows Democrats to maintain a public discussion about Trump’s erratic eccentricities
The U.S. Constitution’s 25th Amendment does allow for a majority of the president’s cabinet, or ‘such other body as Congress may by law provide,’ to decide if an Oval Office occupant is unable to carry out his duties – and then to put it to a full congressional vote.
Vice President Mike Pence would also have to agree, which could slow down the process – or speed it up if he wanted the levers of power for himself.
The 25th Amendment has been around since shortly after the John F. Kennedy assassination, but Congress has never formed its own committee to judge a president’s mental health.
Speier tweeted in August that Trump ‘is showing signs of erratic behavior and mental instability that place the country in grave danger. Time to invoke the 25th Amendment.’
Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin has a plan that would allow Congress to name a commission with the power to determine if Trump is too mentally ill to hold office
Raskin, a constitutional law professor as well as a legislator, has mad no bones about the fact that his House bill is an attack on Trump specifically
Raskin’s bill would allow the four Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate to each choose a psychiatrist and another doctor for a mental fitness panel. Then each party would add a former statesman – like a retired president or vice president.
The final group of 10 would meet and choose an 11th member, who would become the committee’s chairman. Together, they could recommend a finding that Congress – and the vice president – would have to agree on in order to move forward.
Gartner, the founder of Duty to Warn, has also formed a ’25th Amendment PAC’ to support candidates who are willing to help remove Trump from office.
That committee has already made at least one donation of $1,000 to Raskin.
‘We hope to be to the 25th Amendment what the NRA is to the 2nd,’ Gartner gamely told Buzzfeed of his embryonic effort.