Acting President. One part of the 25th amendment that’s actually been used a few times (Section 3) is related to anesthesia. When the President is going under general anesthesia they can formally tell congress they’ll be temporarily unable to discharge the duties of the office, so the VeeP becomes acting President.
It’s been done 4 times - all related to the colon, funnily enough. George HW Bush was Acting President during Reagan’s colon-cancer surgery. Cheney was Acting President twice for W’s colonoscopies, and Harris was Acting President during Biden’s colonoscopy.
Between all 4 instances it still adds up to like 11 hours total that a VeeP has been Acting President.
The other parts of the 25th Amendment that have been used are Section 1 (Presidential sucession in case of death, resignation, or removal from office) for when Nixon resigned, and Section 2 (Vice-Presidnential succession) following Spiro Agnew’s resignation and Ford’s elevation to the Presidency following Nixon’s Resignation.
Section 4 (removal by the cabinet) hasn’t been used. It probably should have been when Reagan was shot and incapacitated, but Bush was on a flight and wouldn’t have been able to do anything, so it was tricky.
It definitely should have been used with Ttump on January 6th - and about 900 other times.
meco03211@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Point of distinction, she would not have been president. Only acting president.