Mick Mulvaney Not Surprised 25th Amendment Is Being Discussed for Trump

Former Trump administration official Mick Mulvaney, who resigned after the president’s supporters stormed the Capitol, said he is not surprised that there are discussions of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Donald Trump from office.

Hundreds of the president’s supporters invaded the nation’s Capitol carrying Confederate flags and other racist symbols on Wednesday. Congress was in session to certify the election of President-elect Joe Biden, which Trump and his supporters had hoped to overturn. Although the certification process was delayed for several hours as the rioters were cleared, lawmakers returned and finished up the process in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Trump administration officials have reportedly been discussing removing the president via the 25th Amendment because of his actions before and during Wednesday’s assault on the Capitol. A growing number of members of Congress have publicly called on Vice President Mike Pence to do so as well.

“It’s not at all surprising,” Mulvaney, who served as the U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland until his resignation, told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Thursday. “You don’t get to where you got to yesterday with something that’s normal. That’s not normal for any citizen, let alone a president of the United States.”

Mick Mulvaney speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference 2020 on February 28 in National Harbor, Maryland. Samuel Corum/Getty

Mulvaney added, “It does not surprise me at all the 25th Amendment is being discussed.” He also suggested that a second impeachment should move forward.

“When the president of the United States encourages the people to interrupt a constitutional process and violently have an insurrection against the government of the United States, nothing is off the table,” he said.

Mulvaney, who previously served as Trump’s acting chief of staff from January 2019 to March 2020, pointed out in the interview that “the legacy of the president was ruined yesterday.”

The White House did not immediately respond to Newsweek’s request for comment.

The 25th Amendment outlines how the president can be removed from office by the vice president and the majority of Cabinet members. If those Cabinet members agree, they can simply submit their decision to congressional leaders, noting that the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”

Pence would then become the president until Biden’s inauguration on January 20. In addition to discussions of the 25th Amendment, there is an effort by some Democrats to impeach the president for a second time.

During a rally hours before his supporters rampaged through the Capitol, Trump described his political opponents as “the enemy of the people” while describing his supporters as “warriors.” The president said they should stop “fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back.”

Supporters of President Donald Trump protest in the U.S. Capitol’s Rotunda on January 6. SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty

After the Capitol invasion unfolded, Trump tweeted: “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.” The post was later censored by the social media platform, and the president’s account was locked.

Trump and his supporters continue to push unfounded conspiracy theories, claiming without evidence that the election was stolen by Biden. These allegations have been thoroughly litigated, failing well over 50 times in state and federal courts. Trump’s former

Attorney General William Barr, who left office last month, has asserted there is “no evidence” of fraud that would change the election’s outcome. Election audits and recounts have validated the results in multiple key battleground states.