Suppose the President went batshit crazy and started throwing his poo around, shooting into crowds, on camera, etc. A problem of immediate concern where the impeachment process would be too slow. Can the president be thrown in jail, or held in any way, legally? Is there any semi-official protocol other than outright ‘mutiny’/‘coup’? How much power does the presidential doctor have?
So it’s up to the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet to decide. In a crisis, the Veep and the Cabinet would probably be able to convene and take over within a matter of hours.
I seem to recall that some of Nixon’s aides were concerned that he was becoming depressed and behaving irrationally during the later days of the Watergate affair, and discussed (informally) what they could do if Dick went off the deep end. However, I don’t have a good cite for this, so take it with a grain of salt.
I think Cecil talked about something like that in one of his columns; something about the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff issuing orders that he be informed of any “unusual orders from the White house”. “In case Nixon decided to torch the world in a fit of pique” was the phrase Cecil used I think.
I know we’ve talked about this a zillion times, but refresh my memory: if the POTUS goes into a McDonald’s and starts mowing everybody down with an Uzi, what immediately happens? Can he be arrested by the Metro PD and tossed in the D.C. jail? What if he or she goes into a Walmart and shoplifts a Snickers bar and Walmart insists on pressing charges?
That sets a maximum, not a minimum. If Congress were in session, and there were a clear cut emergency, even if the President was coherent enough to declare himself capable the whole set of procedures could be run through in a matter of hours.
I don’t see why the cops couldn’t arrest - the President doesn’t enjoy any sort of criminal immunity by virtue of his office. And the Secret Service is, after all, a law enforcement agency - unless the cops were beating the President for giggles, they’d be unlikely to interfere.
There is (kind of) a historical precedent for this. Woodrow Wilson was mostly incapacitated by a stroke during his second term. There is persuasive evidence that he was non compos mentis for several months, and it is likely that he never regained his full faculties. His wife Edith essentially ran the country. She claimed to be speaking for him, but there is some doubt whether she actually did, or just pursued her own agenda.
There is some interesting speculation that had Wilson recused himself, or been removed from office Vice president Thomas Marshall could have persuaded the country to join the League of Nations with the possible result that WW2 might have been prevented.
SS