Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Never has America, or any other country, faced this dilemma: whether to impeach an outgoing president who carries nuclear codes?
Many Americans, including law experts, are exploring the 25th Amendment to the Constitution for possibly removing US President Donald Trump from the high office even before his term expires.
On Friday, Trump tweeted that he planned to skip Biden’s inauguration on January 20. He will be the first president to do so in more than 150 years, and only the fourth in US history.
Biden said he agreed with that decision, adding, “It’s a good thing, him not showing up.”
In this extremely toxic political atmosphere, Nancy Pelosi, House of Representatives Speaker, said if Trump fails to resign “immediately”, the Lower House will move for a second impeachment of the maverick President whose violent supporters stormed the Capitol last week in Washington DC and created mayhem that led to five deaths. The unprecedented happenings were roundly condemned by world leaders.
But President-elect Joe Biden is not taking any position on how to go about Trump—whether to impeach him or let him go undisturbed—even as the outgoing President was considering pardoning himself, his family, and his close associated in the next few days.
Biden merely said that Trump isn’t “fit for the job”, as he repeatedly refused to endorse growing Democratic calls that he is impeached for a second time.
The President-elect’s comments may have emanated from a stark fact: that Trump is still the US President, and the unpredictable man carries the nuclear codes in his briefcase!
Biden’s remarks followed a meeting Speaker Pelosi had with her chamber’s Democratic caucus to consider another round of impeachment against Trump after last Wednesday’s violence when a mob of Trump supporters overran the Capitol. Trump hailed them as “very special” and told them he loved them.
“I’ve thought for a long, long time that President Trump wasn’t fit for the job. That’s why I ran,” Biden told Democrat reporters during a press conference in Delaware on Friday, media reported.
He said, if Trump still had six months to go, “we should be doing whatever it took” to force the President from office. But, instead, Biden asserted he was now focused on taking office, with Inauguration Day approaching.
Pelosi and Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer urged Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to force Trump from office. It’s a process for stripping the president of his post and installing the Vice President to take over.
Trump, who is set to leave with Biden’s inauguration, could be prevented from running again in 2024 or ever holding the presidency again. If impeached, he will be the only president to be impeached twice.
Earlier, Trump was impeached by the Democratic-led House in December 2019 on allegations of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over his dealings with Ukraine against political rival Joe Biden, now President-elect. But Trump was acquitted by the Republican-led Senate in February 2020.
Democrats are likely to impeach him again next week itself if his Cabinet doesn’t first try to remove him, media reports said.
But it is easier said than done.
On Friday, Pelosi asked the Pentagon’s highest military officer, General Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about keeping “an unstable President from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike.”
The truth is, according to the media, nothing can be done. “The U.S. President has sole launch authority over the country’s nuclear arsenal. The power has remained with the White House since President Harry Truman ordered dropping atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II”, according to reports.
A military aide, who shadows the President, also Commander in Chief, carries the black briefcase commonly referred to as the “nuclear football.” It is packed with attack options and other information needed in a national emergency. At any moment’s notice, Trump is legally empowered to order a nuclear attack with America’s arsenal of strategic bombers, missile-launching submarines and land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The President’s decision to launch a nuclear attack is relayed immediately as an order to the Pentagon chief before it is sent down the chain of command.
That is why this issue is particularly concerning as Congressional members wonder about Trump’s temperament and whether the nation can survive his remaining 12 days in office without further damage to national security.
That is, perhaps, why Joe Biden is not taking any position, waiting for Trump to retire peacefully.
However, C. Robert Kehler, the retired Air Force general who commanded U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the nation’s nuclear arsenal, told a congressional committee in 2017 that there are military checks in place should a President order a nuclear strike if the U.S. is not first under attack. “If there is an illegal order presented to the military, the military is obligated to refuse to follow it,” media said quoting him.
So, the dilemma remains.
