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California Gov. Gavin Newsom ignited an online firestorm on Thursday evening when, in response to President Donald Trump’s election integrity speech, he suggested that it was time to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove the president for displaying what he described as cognitive impairment.
“The only thing missing in Donald Trump’s speech was tin foil. This was a legitimate 25th Amendment moment — the rambling of a mad king,” Newsom said.
Newsom’s call to use the 25th Amendment plays into preexisting calls from Democrats to examine Trump’s cognitive performance, but also sparked controversy online about how Democrats could seriously question Trump’s mental state when they dismissed similar concerns about now-former President Joe Biden.
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The 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967, allows the Cabinet to deem the president unfit for duty or allows Congress to establish an independent body to make that call.
To some critics, that case was much stronger under the last administration.
“You literally propped up a vegetable and lied to the American people about his cognitive decline for four years and never mentioned the 25th amendment once,” the official Republican National Committee X account wrote in response, referring to Republican doubts that Biden had the mental acuity to run the country at age 82.
“Given Newsom’s defense to this day of President Biden, calling him one of the greatest presidents ever, there’s a saying around sitting this one out that applies here…” Fox News contributor Joe Concha wrote on X.
“Gavin Newsome wants to remove [Trump] from office for disclosing California could have tens of thousands of aliens illegally registered to vote and that China attacked 220 million voters,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.
Trump addressed the country on Thursday evening, informing the public that his administration had discovered a series of weaknesses in election integrity.
In particular, Trump said newly declassified documents would reveal foreign data theft carried out by China, that members of the U.S. government had known about election vulnerabilities for years, that Americans had been misled about those weaknesses and new evidence of “election fraud.”
Fox News Digital could not independently verify the content of the documents that were released by the White House.
Like many Democrats, Newsom cast doubt on the motives behind Trump’s speech, which came just four months ahead of the November midterms.
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“He wants to rig the election in 2026. He knows he is going to lose. That’s what that whole thing was about,” Newsom said.
Other Democrats on Thursday rushed to Newsom’s support.
“Boom. Gov. Gavin Newsom calls for the 25th Amendment to be invoked after Trump’s unhinged speech tonight. He’s right! Trump is mentally deranged and unfit to be president,” Harry Sisson, a Democratic influencer, wrote in a post to X.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., also echoed those calls.
“He lies with every breath he takes. How can anyone deny the urgency of the 25th Amendment at this point?”
This isn’t the first time Ansari has called to implement the 25th Amendment. Earlier this year, she joined other Democrats like Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., to call for Congress to remove Trump and establish an independent group to review the cognitive state of any president. The group would have included past presidents, physicians and other experts.
“Trump is clearly experiencing severe cognitive decline and leaders from every political affiliation have recognized this. He’s become a national security threat to the United States,” Ansari said in April.
Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on if he would support the bill supported by Ansari.
Other conservatives raised concerns about how invoking the 25th Amendment might upend the country, taking it into uncharted territory.
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“Does anyone else think it’s weird that as he talks about Trump rigging an election, he simultaneously asks for the president’s cabinet to remove a duly elected president?” Joe Patterson, a California assemblyman, said in a post on social media.
“Yeah, Gavin … that would pose no risk to our democracy at all. Get real!”
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