As House Democrats seek to progress their efforts Thursday to impeach President Donald Trump, CNN is speculating whether one unintended consequence could see Vice President Mike Pence also sidelined, leaving the way clear for Nancy Pelosi to take the reins of office.
The fantasy outcome is contained in an opinion piece by Paul Callan, a contributor and CNN legal analyst.
He speculates Trump and Pence could possibly both be drawn into the Ukraine inquiry, leaving the way clear under constitutional law for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to ascend the White House steps as Commander-in-Chief. He writes:
What might follow could be a double impeachment scenario that would make heads spin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the president of the United States. After Pence, she’s next in the line of succession.
He then immediately concedes this may be just a dream because if Trump and Pence were both implicated in the scandal and Pence’s resignation or removal from office occurred first, “Trump could nominate a new vice president under the 25th Amendment.”
This is not the first time left-wing commentators have sought to elevate Nancy Pelosi to the highest office in the land.
Last month the Washington Post examined the same possible scenario in an opinion piece. It stated:
What happens when a Democratic speaker of the House — second in line to the presidency, according to the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 — is suddenly thrust into the Oval Office, succeeding a Republican president and vice president who resign, embroiled in scandal?
Such a scenario is attracting attention — #PresidentPelosi was trending on social media after last week’s announcement of an impeachment inquiry — even though it may seem far-fetched that President Trump and Vice President Pence would be forced from office over abuse of power related to the administration’s dealings with Ukraine or other misdeeds.
The writers, Robert Atkins and Adam Frankel, noted it remains “far-fetched” that Trump and Pence could be forced from office over “abuse of power related to the administration’s dealings with Ukraine or other misdeeds” but they did not rule it out, as Breitbart News reported.
The column writers compared Democrats’ current move to impeach the president to when former Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned amidst charges of tax evasion, which left the office of the vice president temporarily vacant in 1973. At that time, if President Richard Nixon were to have resigned or been impeached, House Speaker Carl Albert (D-OK) would have assumed the presidency.
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