Washington D.C. — Michael Wolff’s scathing insider account of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and his first year in office raise new questions about the commander in chief’s mental health. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, tells Thinking CAP that if the president is mentally impaired, his Cabinet should discuss invoking the 25th Amendment.
“In terms of concerns over the president’s capacity and in particular when he has his finger on the trigger, I don’t think impeachment is as much the mechanism as Article 25 and I would hope that there’s a conversation between those in the Cabinet room between [national security adviser H.R.] McMaster and [Secretary of Defense Jim] Mattis and [Secretary of State Rex] Tillerson, [homeland security advisor Tim] Bossert, and others, that should the president order anything that just seems mentally imbalanced, that they would have a discussion about Article 25 and in particular before there would ever be an unjustified discussion of a nuclear first strike of some kind,” said Rep. Schiff on the podcast.
He also discusses the latest developments in the Russia investigation, as well as his take on efforts of impeachment proposed by Rep. Al Green (D-TX) in December.
“I think that premature calls for impeachment will be a disservice if ultimately Bob Mueller comes back with a case that we need to consider. Because to those constituents in those red districts, it will appear, well this is what they wanted to do all along. So, I think we have to let the investigation run its course—both our congressional investigations, as well as Bob Mueller’s, and then we can decide, based on a full set of facts, what are the consequences of what we know.”
Listen to the full interview here.
Thinking CAP is a weekly podcast from the Center for American Progress, hosted by Michele Jawando and Igor Volsky. Since it’s launch in May, Jawando and Volsky have spoken with leading progressive thought leaders, comedians, authors, and politicians; including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY); former Attorney General Eric Holder; Hasan Minhaj of “The Daily Show”; Jason Kander of Let America Vote; author Reza Aslan; and activists, including Brittany Packnett, Janaye Ingram, and Ben Wikler. The podcast is produced by Sally Tucker, and Rachel Rosen is the supervising producer. New episodes are released every Thursday. The podcast is available on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and CAP’s website.
For more information or for information on guest booking, please contact Sally Tucker at 202-481-8103 or [email protected].