AHC: Stage a Presidential Cou Using the 25th Amendment

Create a scenario for an effective cou inside of the US cabinet to take place with the invocation of the 25th Amendment.
 

TinyTartar

Banned
George W. Bush had a few health operations while on office that required Cheney to become acting President for a few hours.

Maybe there is a complication, Bush goes into a coma or something similar, or he is considered to be unfit to govern and Cheney is put in control, despite Bush maybe not being all that incapacitated, leading to a situation where there are disagreements over who is really in control.
 
Getting temporary power is relatively straightforward if one has a majority of the Cabinet. Hanging on to it is far more difficult given the requirement that Congress vote with a 2/3 majority in each of the Senate and House to continue an Acting Presidency in the event of a disagreement between the President and VP/Cabinet over an allegation of disability. See Amendment XXV, Article 4.

My own view is that this would be a very difficult thing to pull off politically, given that any Cabinet members would have been appointed by the ostensibly disabled President and also given the requirement for a 2/3 Congressional majority to keep a VP in power in the case of disagreement. It's a part of the 25th that has the theoretical potential for abuse, but the practicalities of how it works make such abuse very difficult to pull off in the absence of a genuine concern over the President's ability to govern.
 
Maybe a Reagan-like scenario? An older president with declining powers who is perhaps moving too quickly in peace negotiations with a traditional adversary.

And perhaps nothing is even said out loud. Rather, two or three members of the cabinet who are 'concerned' skillfully undersell the health concerns to other cabinet members. Of course, the reason they're concerned is the peace negotiations. They might even tell themselves the reason the president is being 'unwise' is because of his declining powers.

A writer can play this different ways.

The vice-president may not even realize he or she is being played by this small core group in the cabinet.
 
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