Speaker pelosi good morning, everyone. Good morning. Pelosi thank you for being here. We are really very honored to have congressman raskin to lead us through his legislation which , is so very important. So i hope you will prepare yourself for a civics lesson, or a presentation on the constitution of the united states. The 25th amendment to the constitution was ratified in 1967 after the assassination of president kennedy with strong , bipartisan support. Members of congress have a duty to take all necessary action to preserve continuity of government and protect the stability and integrity of our democracy for the future. That is why today, again, it is my honor to welcome congressman jamie raskin of maryland, a constitutional scholar, as he introduces legislation to establish a commission on president ial capacity to discharge the duties and powers and duties of the office. This is not about President Trump. He will face the judgment of the voters. But he shows the need for us to create a process for future president s. Throughout americas history, our leaders have created and strengthened guardrails in the constitution to ensure stability and continuity of government in times of crisis. The 25th amendment creates a path for preserving stability, if a president suffers a crippling physical or mental problem and is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office and transfers his , powers. Specifically, section four of the amendment empowers Congress Independent body to confront such a crisis. Congress has a constitutional duty to lay out the process by incapacity. Idents this bill honors the duty by creating a Standing Commission of top former executive officials and medical experts selected in a bipartisan, bicameral way. A president s fitness for office must be determined by science and facts. This legislation applies to future president s, but we are reminded of the necessity of action by the health of the current president. With this bill, the Congress Honors our oath to support and defend the constitution and protect the American People. And we uphold our responsibility to preserve a republic for generations to come. Now it is my honor to yield to , the distinguished gentleman from maryland, a Constitutional Authority by teaching it, honoring it and again, legislating to honor our constitution. Congressman raskin, thank you for your leadership. Representative raskin madam speaker, thank you very much. I am honored by your words, and thank you for inviting me to present to the press this legislation. In times of chaos, we must hold fast to our constitution. The 25th amendment is about the stability of the presidency and the continuity of the office. It is a tool adopted by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in the house and senate in 1965, and overwhelming bipartisan majorities of state legislators, three quarters of whom passed it in 1967. The 25th amendment is designed to guarantee the continuing, peaceful transfer of power in our country. The principal authors of the amendment, like senators birch and robert f kennedy, kennedy,e and robert f wanted to resolve basic questions about stability, continuity and succession in the office of the president. Section one established that if the presidency is vacant, the Vice President becomes the president. And believe it or not, that was ambiguous at the time. Section two establishes that if the vice presidency is vacant, the president nominates a Vice President , and by concurrent majority vote of the house and senate, that nominee becomes the Vice President. Section three established a process for the temporary transfer of power by a president who is incapacitated, by transmitting to the president pro tem of the senate and speaker of the house a statement establishing a temporary disability. And this has happened multiple ,imes with various president s including president reagan, who transferred powers to Vice President bush when he underwent colorectal surgery. Section four deals with the problem of a president who becomes incapacitated, but has made no revision to temporarily transfer powers. Meaning, in the words of senator birch baye, the president is unable to make or communicate his decisions as to his own competency to execute the powers and duties of his office. In that case, the Vice President and a majority of the cabinet, or the Vice President and such other body that may be established by congress, may determine there is a president ial incapacity and notify the president pro tem and speaker of the house of that inability to conduct the powers and duties of office. In that case, the powers would be transferred to the Vice President. Now, if you read section four, you will see the president has the opportunity to object, that he actually can conduct the powers, despite what the Vice President and these bodies are saying, and ultimately there would be a vote of the house and senate, and it requires two thirds to side with the Vice President. So it is made procedurally difficult to make sure that this is only for the most extreme situations, where you have a resident who cannot fulfill the duties of the office. It has never been necessary, but the authors of the 25th amendment thought it was important to have a safety valve option. And as they often said, we have 535 members of congress, but only one president. Covid19, which has now killed over 210,000 americans and now ravaged the white house staff, the wisdom of the 25th amendment is clear. What if the president or Vice President ends up on a ventilator and has made no provisions for the transfer of power under Section Three . Who has the power of the presidency at that point . Is it the chief of staff, the secretary of state . This situation is what demands action under section four. I Wish Congress had that this permanent body 50 years ago. It did not do it, but we do need to do this, certainly in the next congress. The framers of the 25th amendment that you could not always count on the cabinet to act, and so congress has a role to play. And that role must be totally bicameral and bipartisan. And the legislation i introduce today seeks to establish a 16 Member Commission that could act in the event of such an emergency. Memberhair, a 17th chosen by the 16 members themselves. Eight members are chosen, half by Republican Leaders and half by democratic leaders, from medical personnel, physicians and other medical authorities. The other eight members are drawn from the ranks of former highranking executive branch officers, including former president s, Vice President , secretaries of defense, treasury and state, and surgeons general. So the commission is entirely the 25thn, and under amendment, it can act only in concert with the Vice President , who is the key actor under the 25th amendment. So the constitution is designed to give us the tools we need to deal with the many crises of Human Affairs that can affect the continuity of democratic selfgovernment. We are in the middle of a momentous election and as the speaker said, the people will decide that, but when we get through this, the problem we are talking about today, it is something serious we have to face. And i am delighted to introduce this legislation and answer any questions you may have. Reporter can you address the concerns with his condition . Number one, the idea that medical professionals will know the condition and not have examined the president , ethical issues whether that is appropriate for them to rule or make judgment on something that they havent done yet, and number two, you say this is some thing in a future congress to be addressed and not about this president. How can you read that at this point in time when you talk about covid19 as not being about this president . Mr. Raskin i will answer the first question and let the speaker take a second. The legislation sets up a process by which congress, through votes in the house and senate, could direct the commission to conduct a medical exam of the president. And that would include whatever members of the commission think is necessary to determine whether there is incapacity. If the president refuses, and the president would have a right to refuse, that would be taken into account by the commission, which would have to rule based on all the other evidence it has. Speaker pelosi again, this is not about judgment anybody has about somebodys behavior. This is about a diagnosis, a professional medical diagnosis. Let me back up for a second. When this happened, it was after the assassination of president kennedy, and you may not know this, you were not born yet, but there was no and Lyndon Johnson became president , and there was no Vice President. And if anything had happened president johnson, and his health was not the greatest, the speaker of the house would have become the president of the united states. So this sets up how you would elect a Vice President , a Vice President chosen by the president , but voted on by the house and senate, and that is what happened with gerald ford. After spiro agnew and all of that, he was appointed the Vice President , and very popular in the congress on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the capital. I love the story about how that happened, because on his 90th birthday, gerald ford came to the house, which is where he sprang from, he was the minority leader. And i said mr. President , i am , so honored to serve i was minority leader at the time i am so honored to serve in the position you served in. And he said to me, i served with your father. I served with your father. And he started to tell me stories about that. When he died, i was the incoming speaker, and we had the honor of opening up the Speakers Office and all of the rest even though i would not be sworn in for a day or two, but i have possession of the Speakers Office opened up to his family, where he presided. We have a real personal sowe have a real personal connection to gerald ford, who filled this spot as determined by the 25th amendment to the constitution. We can do a couple of things at once, we can engage in our political activity for the public to make its verdict 25 days from now, and at the same time, honor our responsibilities to have something in place that does not apply to this president , but certainly raises the issue. If a president , and this is not with bad intention if a incapacitated,es on a ventilator whatever it , happens to be, he would not have the ability as Ronald Reagan had and president herbert president George Herbert walker bush had and president george w. Bush had, and made a judgment that for a certain time, i transfer power. So this sets up a formula. Its not for us to decide that, it is about a process to decide it. And as the distinguished gentleman said, without the Vice President , the Vice President is crucial to this, and that would be the Vice President of the president s party. Reporter a week ago, you were toying the idea of impeachment. And now you are talking Speaker Pelosi i was what . Another question, that is based on a falsehood. Yes. Reporter im curious why about the timing. Why introduce this legislation now, why not wait until the new session of congress . Things may have changed and you may have a clearer view of the of the legislation and congress. Wouldnt it be easier when the decks are cleared . Speaker pelosi it takes time. And there has been a call for , why not execute the 25 amendment 25th amendment . Thats not what we are doing. We are exercising the power the constitution gave us. Jamie, did you want to speak . Mr. Raskin it is interesting, i found the body had never been set up, and i guess the reason is theres never a good time to do it, because it is always just seen in its local circumstances as opposed to the need to have , this institutionally. Say thess i would situation has focused everybodys mind on the need for following through on this suggestion in the 25th amendment that congress set up its own body. Age of covid19, where a law of government doctors have been afflicted, we need to act. Reporter this is a president who has been impeached. You made comments suggesting you think his mental state might be affected by the drugs that he is on. What do you say to those who say this is just another attempt to go around the public and get rid president through way way that is not an election . Speaker pelosi let me first say, what i said about the president and the drugs was, there are those who believe that taking certain medications can affect your judgment. I dont know. Lets say what i actually said. I dont know. That is what i said on a call with my members. So may so you may have gotten it several times removed. There are those medical professionals who say certain medications can impair judgment. I dont know. And i appreciate your question, because this is really important, it is not about any of us making a judgment about the president s well in, it is iout this respected, partisan, both aspects, the metal will the medical side of it and the dignitary stakes of it, separated equally by the leaders in a bipartisan way. And the Vice President is crucial to that. When we do legislation, it is important people understand why. To have in like place, and it could be said for a future presidency, if the president wins this election, yes, it would apply to him. If he doesnt, it would apply to the next president. Anything tot about say, youve got to do Something Like this about the election. It is not about the election at all. I think the gentleman from he was on thisse it while back. Because the timing is on this for now, because people want to know. We have to give some comfort to comfort to people that there is a way to do this, very respectful, not on the basis of a common tory behavior that we dont like, but based on a medical decision, again, with the full involvement of the Vice President of united states. Whoever he may be at the time. Think thedo you president has not met the threshold for invoking the 25th amendment . Will you concede the president has not met the threshold for the 25th amendment . Speaker pelosi that is not for us to decide. Representative rankin we understand that in politics, people point fingers back and forth. But the issues raised are of such gravity and importance to the nature of our government, that we have to think about this in constitutional terms. This is why we need to set up an institution composed on a bipartisan fashion and bicameral fashion, that will be able to make judgments whether its five , months from now, five years from now, 50 years from now, whatever it might be. You know we are living in an age , of a lot of chaos. Say i appreciate what the speaker has to go through on a daily basis dealing with the chaos of politics, which has been made especially intense recently. And i appreciate her seeing that we need to create some constitutional and institutional foundations for dealing with the chaos. And our forbearers who gave us the 25th amendment gave us the tools that we need to deal with this kind of crisis. Speaker pelosi with the American People, it is the constitution of the united states. It has always been gratifying to country andund the no matter democrats or republicans right or left or whatever that the constitution, the rules are what really unify us. And this is a comfort to people, that it is not about who is in power, saying i dont like the way he or she is acting its , about a process that is bipartisan, based in the constitution, giving congress the power to do this, which againss has not done, and at a time when people understand , there is necessity for it. But again, tia question, it isnt about any of us making a decision about whether the 25th amendment should be invoked. That is totally not the point. Thats not up to us. Thats not up to us. But i do go back to mr. Raskins point. Ast put yourself in situation, and your responsibilities to your family, and if you suffer a stroke or covid and are not capable of making decisions for your family because it is unforeseen, accidental, whatever happened, wouldnt you in advance like to have had a plan for your family, even if it is temporary . God willing, even if it is temporary, that would be in place. Thats what this is. We will take one more. Do you think President Trump has an altered state of mind . What are the indications of that . And do you think Prime MinisterBoris Johnson is an example of somebody whos capacity to govern is reduced by coronavirus . Speaker pelosi i have no idea. Nor do i have about President Trump. I have said hes clearly under , medication. Any of us under medication of that seriousness is in an altered state. He has bragged about the medication that he has taken. And again, there are articles by medical professionals saying this could, as i said earlier could have an impact on , judgment. I dont have the faintest idea about Boris Johnson. But im glad you brought up the subject. Because i think we have to be very careful about what happens in the u. K. We have very stringent rules in terms of the food and Drug Administration here, but the number of clinical trials, the timing, the people and all the rest so when a drug is approved fda and the Scientific Advisory committee, that it is safe and efficacious, that it will have the trust of the American People to take it. Vaccines are about trust. We want people to take it. So we pray that it is soon, the sooner, the better, not one day sooner than it is safe and efficacious, but not one day later either. And my concern is that the u. K. System for that kind of judgment is not on par with the united states. So if Boris Johnson decides he is going to approve a drug, and this president embraces that, thats the concern that i have about any similarity between the two. Thank you all very much. You think it is safe for the president to go campaigning tomorrow . [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] tomorrow, President Trump holds his first inperson event since being hospitalized for covid19. He will address a group at the white house from the balcony starting at 2 00 p. M. Eastern, live on cspan. And joe biden is on the campaign trail to give remarks in erie, pennsylvania. We will have that at 4 45 eastern. Onch Live Campaign coverage cspan, online at cspan. Org or listen on the free cspan radio app. Journal,s washington every day we are taking your calls live on the air on the news of the day, and discussing policy issues that impact you. Coming up saturday morning, author and Elections Security expert joins us to talk about historic attempts by russia to interfere with u. S. Elections. Also, a university of Michigan Law School professor and Supreme Court historian discusses the history of president Franklin D RooseveltsCourt Packing attempt. Watched cspans washington journal live at 7 00 eastern saturday morning and join the conversation with phone calls, facebook comments, Text Messages and tweets. Legal expert talk about the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, and what kind of justice she would be if confirmed by the senate. The Heritage Foundation hosted event. So she has been a judge on the seventh circuit since 2017