Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., has urged the use of the 25th Amendment against President Donald Trump, warning that his recent actions show he is unfit to serve.
She made the remarks during an MSNBC discussion, where she condemned Trump’s sudden removal of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
“It is time to call for Article [Amendment] 25 of the Constitution of the United States of America to determine his unfitness, to determine that something’s wrong with this president. And I would suggest that we move very aggressively to talk about the danger to this country and to our democracy and not play around with this because this is absolutely one of the most destructive things that this president could do,” Waters declared on The Weeknight.
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Trump dismissed Cook on Monday, claiming she misrepresented mortgage details, an allegation she denies. Waters argued the move threatens not only Cook’s position but also the country’s financial stability.
“This stands to basically upend the entire economy. This stands to really deal with what is going to happen on Wall Street, what’s going to happen with interest rates, what’s going to happen with the president of the United States being able to make decisions that he will personally benefit from,” she continued.
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Cook, in response, filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging her removal. She asserted that Trump lacked legal grounds to terminate her and requested a restraining order so she could keep her seat on the Fed board. The case is expected to move quickly toward the Supreme Court, escalating tensions between the White House and the Federal Reserve.
Waters stressed the urgency of acting against Trump: “And, so, the world, and certainly the United States, should be watching this very closely. As far as I’m concerned, we have to move very aggressively. It is not about lingering and trying to think that maybe the courts will help us.”
During the MSNBC discussion, host Symone Sanders-Townsend turned to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., for reaction to Waters’ 25th Amendment proposal.
“I think it’s jarring to hear Congresswoman Waters say it’s time for the 25th Amendment. But, I mean, presidents have been impeached for much less,” Sanders-Townsend observed.
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Wasserman Schultz argued Trump’s real target was Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. “Donald Trump’s real preference is to fire Jerome Powell. But he knows that that’s a bridge too far,” she said.
She accused Trump of undermining the Fed by targeting Cook instead: “So, what he’s doing instead is, he’s taking a monkey wrench, and he’s going to go in and try to meddle with the component parts of the Federal Reserve by trying to fire Lisa Cook on something that was maintained in the court case today that she’s not even being investigated for. By the way, the so-called fraud that she is being accused of, she didn’t even get preferred interest rates on any of the mortgages that she obtained, which demonstrates that she didn’t break the law. It’s preposterous.”
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