NEW YORK, Jan 08 (APP): The US House of Representatives Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said in a letter to members on Friday that she has spoken to the top military officer about blocking an “unhinged” President Donald Trump from accessing the nuclear codes.
“This morning, I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike,” Pelosi, a Democrat, wrote in the letter carried by news media.
“The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy,” she said.
Dozens of Democrats and a growing number of Republicans have called on Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump, claiming he is no longer fit for office.
In her letter, Pelosi said she and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had reached out to Pence with no response, adding that they “still hope to hear from him as soon as possible with a positive answer as to whether he and the Cabinet will honor their oath to the Constitution.”
“If the President does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action,” she added.
Numerous progressive lawmakers have pushed for legislation that would limit the president’s authority to launch a nuclear strike — including by requiring additional officials to sign off on a launch and making the “no first use of nuclear weapons” an official U.S. policy.
