Keith Olbermann offers a surprisingly easy and constitutional way to fire Donald Trump


Green Party nominee Jill Stein is trying to reverse the presidential election result through recounts in three Rust Belt states, and there's a push to have the Electoral College just pick Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, despite Trump winning more electoral votes, but Keith Olbermann says there's an easier way to strip Trump of power: "The 25th Amendment, Section Four." The Constitution was surprisingly vague on what happens if a president dies or is incapacitated in office, he explained in his GQ show The Resistance, laying out the history of the amendment, enacted in 1967, and running down its three better-known clauses. "And then there is Section Four," Olbermann said, "written nearly 52 years ago, more with Woodrow Wilson in mind, and yet it might as well have been named for Donald John Trump."
This section allows for "instant impeachment," Olbermann said, with no hearings or doctors or trial. In about three weeks, with just two letters from the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet declaring the president unable to discharge his duties, a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate "results in the president remaining in office with the title but without the power," he said. "So it's a crazy-man clause, right? In the case of Trump, it presumes he behaves as president as he is behaving as president-elect."
"For my money, he's nuts — couldn't pass a sanity test, open book," Olbermann said. "But of course, Section Four of the 25th Amendment here does not say 'nuts' — or impaired, or erratic or unbalanced or unhealthy or bipolar or narcissist or sociopath or psychopath. It only says 'that the president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,'" a description that Olbermann found "kind of vague." Keith Olbermann sees you shaking your head. "Even if you loathe or fear Trump, you must look at this and say: 'This can't happen in a democracy, the people voted for him. You can't just un-president him,'" he said. "The hell you can't!" And he had another brief history lesson, this time about British prime ministers, to make that case. Watch below. Peter Weber
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Four royal holiday hotspots
The Week Recommends Follow in the footsteps of royalty and experience the charm of some of their most popular getaways
-
The rise of the lost luggage auction
In the Spotlight Lost luggage hauls are attracting millions of views online
-
Stunning beaches in Scotland
The Week Recommends Scenic spots that wouldn't look out of place in the Caribbean
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclub
Speed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's ills
Speed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, Stallone
Speed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's view
Speed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talk
Speed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
A long weekend in Zürich
The Week Recommends The vibrant Swiss city is far more than just a banking hub
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle