If you think politics and the leaks from the current White House are crazy, it appears that Rep. Ted Lieu (D-California) agrees. in fact, Lieu is putting the finishing touches on legislation to introduce a bill that would require the White House — and Donald Trump specifically — to keep a psychiatrist on staff, according to Huffington Post.
Are Democrats trying a new approach with Trump?
The Democrats of been fighting furiously during the current confirmation hearings for Trump's cabinet, including Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education and Jeff Sessions for Attorney General.The last 48 hours have been particularly cutthroat when Sen.
Elizabeth Warren (D–Massachusetts) was silenced while trying to read a letter from the late Coretta Scott King regarding her feelings about nominee Sessions.
It now looks like the Democrats want to take a gentler, kinder approach to relations with President Trump and perform a sort of intervention, if you will, out of their deep concern for President Trump's mental well-being. (Many might argue the public needs it to salvage their own sanity, as well.) Lieu is heading up the charge to manage what many feel is an increasingly unstable runaway train in the Oval Office.
Lieu cites unstable behavior by President Trump
Lieu specifically noted supporting evidence from Donald Trump's first press conference as president, where he spent much of that press conference having White House spokesman Sean Spicer talk about the crowd sizes at his inauguration.
Unfortunately, Lieu's concerns didn't stop there.
"His disconnection from the truth is incredibly disturbing. When you add on top of that his stifling of dissent, his attacks on the free press and his attacks on the legitimacy of judiciary, that then takes us down the road toward authoritarianism.
That’s why I’ve concluded he is a danger to the republic."
Is Donald Trump on the edge of a nervous breakdown?
At today's White House briefing, with so many executive orders and cabinet nominations on the table, plus growing concerns over environmental protections, immigration rights, and women's health rights, President Trump took the opportunity to use the official White House briefing to blast department store Nordstrom for dropping daughter Ivanka Trump's brand.
Trump also spent the day tweeting about the federal court decision to put a hold on his immigration ban pending review. Even his nominee for the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, said he found Trump's responses to the judges presiding over the normal judicial process "disheartening."
Other politicians are getting on board with Lieu's plan, including some you might suspect, like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Maxine Waters (D-California), but some might be surprising, such as Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). Chaffetz didn't directly cite Trump as being mentally unstable but acknowledged that some form of mental evaluation was probably a good idea for anyone with access to nuclear codes.
Is this the beginning of the end for Trump?
Waters hinted that impeachment proceedings may be coming soon, but Pelosi stated she would wait until Trump broke the law.
Another strategy politicians can take if they feel the president is unfit to serve, is to invoke the 25th Amendment, which states that "a president may be removed by a two-thirds vote of Congress if members of the executive branch deem him unable to discharge his duties."
With GOP majorities in both houses, President Trump is probably safe for now.