Schiff Says Too Early To Force Trump Out

Rep. Adam Schiff Image by Getty Images

By Nathan Guttman August 21, 2017

California Democrat Adam Schiff, one of President Trump’s chief critics in Congress, is calling on fellow Democrats to wait before trying to use a constitutional move to force Trump out of office.

Speaking on CNN over the weekend, Schiff said there were “serious issues” with Trump’s capability as a president, “that aren’t going to go away, that aren’t going to get better, and indeed with the pressures of the job, may very well get worse.”

But Schiff does not believe it is time to invoke the 25th Amendment which allows the vice president and 8 cabinet member to force the president out if he is deemed incapable of doing his job. “I think we’re still far from concluding that that’s the case,” Schiff told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “even though we find, many of us, his conduct anathema and there to be a serious problem here.” Several Democrats have spoken out last week about the need to invoke the 25th Amendment and a resolution was introduced in Congress calling on the cabinet to examine Trump’s mental and health capabilities.

Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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