Bob Lonsberry

Bob Lonsberry

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LONSBERRY: Trump, Meet The 25th Amendment

It’s time for Trump to go.

               Not in a couple of weeks. Not in a couple of days.

               Now.

               It’s time to invoke the 25thAmendment and cut him loose.

               He showed yesterday that he is either delusional or demonic, that he is actively mentally ill, afflicted either by psychotic paranoia or clinical narcissism. 

               Either way, he is dangerous. That man cannot have the nuclear codes or be commander in chief. He cannot have his finger on any button of any significance.

               He can’t be trusted.

               And I say this as someone who voted for him twice, went to his inauguration, visited his White House, bought his hat, defended his policies, and applauded his achievements. From my standpoint, he had 46 good months. Based on them, I’d hoped he’d have 48 more.

               But his actions since losing the election have been dangerous and troubling, and yesterday he crossed the line. Yesterday he encouraged an insurrection against the Congress of the United States. He worked them up, he sent them up the road, and he sat silently as they shamed our nation and disrupted our Constitution.

               And that’s the bridge too far.

               We would neutralize a foreign foe who did such a thing, and we must neutralize this domestic foe.

               We can’t trust him to exercise the powers of his office tomorrow because he showed that we couldn’t trust him to exercise the powers of his office yesterday.

               The interests of the United States and the peace of the world are too important to be gambled on a roll of the Trump dice. We lost yesterday, and a horrible thing happened. We can’t afford to lose again.

               So the vice president needs to invoke the 25thAmendment. A president who did what this president did yesterday is so unstable or ill-disposed as to be unable to perform the duties of his office. It is not a coup, it is not a political move, it is an act driven by the symptomology of Donald Trump’s misconduct. He inspired people to an evil act, and failed to call them away from their deeds. No person of healthy mind or character would do that.

               And so he qualifies.

               And the nation deserves.

               And Mike Pence and the Cabinet must act.

               The Republicans must clean up this mess. The vice president must reach over and take away Trump’s keys.

Because if it’s not the 25thAmendment today, it’s impeachment tomorrow. If the Republicans don’t do one, the Democrats will do the other.

               And the two options offer very different impacts. If the vice president invokes the 25thAmendment, the departure is an act of healing between the political parties. If the congressional Democrats impeach the president, it divides the nation and our parties, allowing Trump and his defenders to portray him as a victim of partisan skullduggery.

               But if his own vice president and Cabinet secretaries act, it removes the suspicion of partisanship and it reflects the gravity of the situation. It demonstrates a higher concern, a duty motivated by love of country, as the force behind the action.

               Either way, Trump has got to go.

               Because no president, now or in a thousand years, may think he can play with the process of his replacement. The peaceful transfer of power, so taken for granted in contemporary America, was a rare and tender flower at its birth. A new experiment in the affairs of men, and it became a definer of the American way, the most precious piece of our political patrimony.

               And yesterday, a man made rich in the shadow of American liberty sought to subvert that liberty for his own benefit.

               No sane person would do that.

               That level of treachery can only be illness, of the mind or of the soul. It is such a deviation from the norm of human conduct that it must be a disability.

               A removable disability.

               And today is the day. Now is the time.

               This is the duty of the vice president and the Cabinet.

               If he had no regard for the Capitol, what can we expect he feels for the country it represents. And what harm do we think he yet might do.

               Yesterday was a symptom, of a disqualifying mental malady.

               It’s time for Trump to go.


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