In a possible move toward invoking the 25th Amendment to force President Donald Trump out of office, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi questioned Trump’s mental stability in an interview with The Atlantic on Sunday.
The former speaker of the House is expected to take back the gavel for the first time in eight years after the Democrats reclaimed the House of Representatives in last week’s elections.
Asked if Trump is stable, she said, “I don’t know. You can’t make a diagnosis over TV, they tell me.”
Pelosi calls Trump unstable
Pelosi (D-CA) appeared to preview a possible line of attack against Trump with the possible invocation of the 25th amendment now that Democrats, eager to seek Trump’s removal, have reclaimed power in the House. Her remarks echo a common accusation among members of the so-called Democratic “resistance” that Trump is not mentally fit to lead the country.
Pelosi has been a vocal critic of Trump throughout his two years in office despite generally pushing back on calls to impeach the president from members of her party, including Rep. Maxine Waters, also a California Democrat. But that could change now that her party has gained wide-ranging power to subject the president to a storm of frivolous investigations.
News that the Democrats took back the House last week was followed by promises from ranking House Democrats to come down upon Trump with a swarm of subpoenas. Democrats have made getting Trump’s tax returns an issue of first priority and threatened that probes into everything from Stormy Daniels to Russia to last week’s firing of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions could be on the way.
Dems call for ‘accountability’
While falling short of calling for impeachment outright, Pelosi has vowed to get Trump’s tax returns and restore “accountability” to the White House.
She told the Atlantic that she would not pursue impeachment without hard evidence of impeachable offenses, but did not rule out the possibility that Special Counsel Robert Mueller would find something to impeach him with. She also warned that Trump’s firing of Sessions last week “is perilously close to a constitutional crisis.”
“What Mueller might not think is indictable could be impeachable,” she said.
Pelosi: Pray for our country
Trump has often pushed back against claims that he is mentally unsound, famously describing himself as a “stable genius” early last year — and prompting Pelosi to question his mental state.
“I take issue with a person presenting himself as a genius,” she said in January. “Doesn’t that raise certain questions? But I’m not going to go to how he — his tweets. I’m just not going to that place.”
Pelosi’s remarks are notable given her recent history of “brain-freezes.”
Pelosi also told the Atlantic that she was troubled by Trump’s wild post-election press conference on Wednesday, during which the president sparred with reporters, including CNN’s Jim Acosta, and criticized members of his own party who did not support him.
Trump also warned that any investigations of him by Democrats would force him to adopt a “war-like posture” that would make bipartisan cooperation impossible, and threatened to launch counter-investigations if House Democrats try to undermine his presidency.
Pelosi, who announced her plans to seek the speaker’s office last week, said that anyone who watched the presser “would know that we have to pray for our country very deeply,” and even said that Trump needs prayers too.
“Pray for him, too, but for our country,” she said.
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