VP Pence: Invoke 25th Amendment Now Please

U.S. House: Pro Forma Session

In the House, a resolution calling on VP Pence to convene and mobilize the cabinet to invoke Section 4 of the 25th amendment was read.

Tomorrow we advance my Resolution calling on VP Pence to mobilize the Cabinet to state the obvious—President Trump is unable to successfully discharge the duties of office—and to immediately transfer powers to the VP under section 4 of the 25th Amendment. https://t.co/OTSsvvCxUk pic.twitter.com/6bAOTDgk4l

— Rep. Jamie Raskin (@RepRaskin) January 11, 2021

Impeachment is one of the gravest powers of Congress. It should always be our last option. If @POTUS doesn’t resign or if @VP doesn’t invoke the #25thAmendment, then we will impeach. Discussed this and more with @SpecNews1SoCal ⬇️pic.twitter.com/ikCgnFlQ92

— Rep. Ted Lieu (@RepTedLieu) January 11, 2021

Section 4: Declaration by vice president and cabinet members of president's inability

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department^{[note 1]} or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.^[5]

Section 4 addresses the case of an incapacitated president who is unable or unwilling to execute the voluntary declaration contemplated by Section 3.^[3]:117 It allows the vice president, together with a "majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide", to issue a written declaration that the president is "unable to discharge the powers and duties" of their office. Immediately upon such a declaration being sent, the vice president becomes acting president while (as with Section 3) the president remains in office, albeit temporarily divested of authority.