What Pop Culture Can Teach Us About the 25th Amendment

 There has been a lot of discussion about the 25^th Amendment ever since armed rioters stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, January 6, 2021.  On this day, Congress was performing its constitutional duty of certifying the Electoral vote in favor of Joseph Biden over Donald Trump, as determined by the popular vote in each state from the election held on November 3.  Objections were raised to the electoral vote in Arizona by members of both the House and Senate, so each house of congress met in their respective chamber to debate the results.  Shortly after debate began, the Capitol was breached by angry, armed rioters.  These rioters had been in attendance at a rally hosted by Trump, held at a park near the White House, at which he told them, “And after this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you.  We’re going to walk to the Capitol…You’ll never take back our country with weakness.  You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”  Heeding Trump’s advice, these citizens marched to the Capitol, breached the barricades, and broke in.  Members of congress were forced to seek shelter, with gas masks in hand in case of tear gas or some other airborne attack.  Five people were killed in the attack, including a Capitol Hill police officer—though no member of congress was injured.  So, after a roughly six-hour delay, Congress reconvened to finish certifying the electoral vote. 

Photo of rioters breaching the Capitol on January 6, 2021 taken from Reuters. 

In response to these attacks, several methods to remove Trump from power have been discussed.  Given his rhetoric surrounding the election results and his calls for shows of strength and urges to fight on his behalf, many have placed at least some of the blame for what happened on January 6 on Trump.  There are two main avenues by which a president may be forced to leave office prior to the end of his term: impeachment and conviction, and the 25^th Amendment.  Impeachment is understood by the American public because we have seen presidents impeached—some in recent memory (Bill Clinton in 1998 and Donald Trump in 2019)—though neither were convicted in their respective Senate trial.  However, we have never witnessed a president removed from power via the 25^th Amendment, leaving the American public largely uninformed about how the process works.    

We have seen the first three sections of the 25^th Amendment invoked in the past.  The first section provides for the succession to the presidency by the vice president in the case where the president is unable to fulfill his duties (i.e. death or resignation).  The second section explains how a Vice President is to be replaced should the vice presidency become vacant (the president appoints a new V.P. who has to be approved by a majority in both houses of congress).  Both of these sections were invoked in the Watergate era.  Gerald Ford was made Vice President via section two after Spiro Agnew resigned and was then made President via section one after Nixon resigned the presidency.  Section three has been invoked a few times by presidents receiving medical procedures requiring anesthesia, under which they would be unable to discharge presidential duties.  Both Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush invoked section three when they received colonoscopies.  Section four, on the other hand, has never been invoked.  Section four allows for the removal of a president from office with a majority vote of the President’s cabinet, including the Vice President.  The Vice President would then become president until the President is deemed capable of reassuming office.  Section four was designed to provide a way to transfer presidential power in the case where a president may suffer a debilitating, yet non-fatal, medical episode (e.g. stroke, heart attack) and be incapable of invoking section three.  This is something we have not witnessed as a country and why pop culture can help us understand how this process works. 

TV shows and movies often include storylines revolving around the 25^th Amendment because of the drama it includes.  Removing a president from power due to a health crisis (Madam Secretary), the temporary transfer of presidential power due to a child’s kidnapping (The West Wing), dealing with the disappearance of a president after a tragic accident (Political Animals), tend to provide for a boost in ratings due to the interesting storyline.  While all sections of the 25^th Amendment have found their way into pop culture, the fourth section’s portrayal holds the unique privilege of being our only look at how it would be invoked, as it has never been invoked by a president’s cabinet. 

The television show Madam Secretary provides us with the clearest look at section four, at least related to the current situation the United States finds itself in.  In the twelfth episode of Season Four, entitled “Sound and Fury,” Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord questions both the mental soundness and overall health of President Dalton after he prepares a military attack in response to a Russian sonic attack on the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria.  This is not a typical response of Dalton, who also appears to be becoming more easily agitated than normal.  After convincing Dalton to hold off any sort of military action for 24 hours, there is finally evidence presented that Russia was not behind the attack.  However, Dalton still wants to attack Russia, regardless of the evidence.  This is when McCord gathers the cabinet and Vice President to discuss invoking the 25^th Amendment.  While there is hesitation among cabinet secretaries, who are concerned about protecting Dalton’s reputation, McCord ultimately convinces them to invoke section four until Dalton undergoes medical testing.  After testing, doctors found a malignant brain tumor pressing on Dalton’s frontal lobe, causing him to act more aggressively than normal.  Upon successful surgery and recuperation, Dalton resumes his presidential duties, with the Vice President returning to the vice presidency. 

This storyline from Madam Secretary gives us the our most useful example of how the fourth section of the 25^th Amendment was meant to be used, as we have not seen it invoked by any presidential cabinet in history.  Section four of the 25^th Amendment was designed to allow for the removal of a president who is incapable of performing his or her duties.  While there is much discussion surrounding this Amendment in the final days of the Trump administration, Vice President Mike Pence has voiced opposition to invoking the 25^th Amendment, all but ensuring it will not be used.  We thus seem to be left with pop culture examples to help elucidate how its invocation would work.

For more information on the history of the 25^th Amendment and how pop culture has played with storylines revolving around it, feel free to check out my recently published article, “A Heartbeat Away: Popular Culture’s Role in Teaching Presidential Succession.”  It was published in Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy (an online, open access journal) and can be found (without a paywall) by clicking here.