John Bolton: Invoking 25th Amendment against Trump Is Fool’s Errand

John Bolton, US former assistant to the president for national security affairs, argued Thursday against invoking 25th Amendment against Donald Trump with less than two weeks left in his term.

"For anybody to advocate removing him from office or trying to remove him from office, they have to be able to prove that the effort would make things better," Bolton said in an interview with The Hill. "And I’m not denying the problem that exists, but I don’t think there’s any real logic to either alternative measured against the question would it make things better."

Democrats and a few Republicans have called for Trump's removal via Section Four of the 25th Amendment, wherein the vice president and a majority of Cabinet officials would sign a letter to Congress saying the president is not fit to serve.

Nonetheless, Bolton called the Section Four of the 25th Amendment "probably the worst written provision of the Constitution," claiming it could cause additional headaches for the nation at a time when Trump is so close to leaving office.

"It has never been used before, and the idea that you’re going to try to trigger it now for the first time and risk having two presidents simultaneously I just think is a fool’s errand," Bolton asserted.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, warning that she was prepared to move forward with impeachment proceedings if he did not.

Bolton envisioned a scenario in which Pence would produce a letter to the Speaker and Senate pro tempore calling for Trump's removal, only for Trump to resist and declare he is able to carry out his duties as president, adding that Trump could potentially fire the Cabinet officials who called for his removal and replace them with loyalists.

"And that even assumes that Pence could do this and not have it leak," he stated. "Which would make it the first effort in the entire Trump administration that didn’t leak."

“It gives aid and comfort to our adversaries internationally, too. And the same would be true with the impeachment effort," he continued. "So, you’re going to make Pence president for six days, seven days. Really? What does that achieve exactly?”

In the same vein, House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said in a statement that Trump should be impeached and removed from office "immediately."

"I am once again urging that the president be impeached and removed from office. We have a limited period of time in which to act,” Nadler said. “The nation cannot afford a lengthy, drawn out process, and I support bringing articles of impeachment directly to the House floor."