WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 21: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks at the National Press Club August 21, 2018 in Washington, DC. Warren spoke on ending corruption in the nation's capital during her remarks. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) (CNN) — Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, seizing on an explosive op-ed from an anonymous administration official, said Thursday that it’s time to use constitutional powers to remove President Donald Trump office if top officials don’t think he can do the job. “If senior administration officials think the President of the United States is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th Amendment,” Warren told CNN. “The Constitution provides for a procedure whenever the Vice President and senior officials think the President can’t do his job. It does not provide that senior officials go around the President – take documents off his desk, write anonymous op-eds … Everyone of these officials have sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States. It’s time for them to do their job.” The hard-charging comments by the potential 2020 presidential candidate come in the wake of the stunning New York Times piece where an anonymous official raises deep concerns about the President and contends there were some initial conversations to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the President from office. The White House has aggressively pushed back on the piece, calling the author a traitor and a coward. The remarks are bound to spark a debate within the potential 2020 field about how hard to go after Trump, with some advocating impeachment and invoking the 25th Amendment and others acting more cautious. Warrren dismissed questions that invoking constitutional remedies would provoke a constitutional crisis. “What kind of a crisis do we have if senior officials believe that the President can’t do his job and then refuse to follow the rules that have been laid down in the Constitution?” Warren told CNN. “They can’t have it both ways. Either they think that the President is not capable of doing his job in which case they follow the rules in the Constitution, or they feel that the President is capable of doing his job, in which case they follow what the President tells them to do.” Warren, who is running for a second Senate term in Massachusetts this year, would not say when she would ultimately decide whether she will run for the White House. “Right now I’m running for re-election in Massachusetts in 2018,” Warren said. “I’m taking nothing for granted.” Still, Warren is viewed as a likely presidential candidate against Trump, who rarely holds back when criticizing Warren, derisively calling her “Pocahontas” because she had claimed a Native American heritage during her career as a law professor. But last weekend, The Boston Globe published an investigative article showing that her ethnicity was not a factor in her employment at Harvard. “My family is my family, but the Boston Globe conducted an enormously thorough investigation and determined that my family’s background had nothing to do with my being hired anywhere ever,” she said. Asked if she regrets how she handled the episode about her ethnic background, Warren said: “I was a first time candidate back in in 2012 and frankly just didn’t even have this basic information. So got it all together, handed it over to the press, and said, there it is.”<doc-sep>Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth WarrenOn The Money: Biden administration launches trade dispute against Canadian dairy industry | Warren urges Biden to replace Fed's Quarles Warren urges Biden to replace Fed's Quarles in testy exchange Warren offers bill to increase IRS budget to .5 billion MORE (D-Mass.) said Thursday she believes it’s time for White House officials to invoke the 25th Amendment and begin the process of removing President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE from office. The comments come one day after a blistering op-ed published in The New York Times by an anonymous senior administration official that blasted Trump as amoral and “anti-democratic” and said staffers must constantly rebut the president’s “misguided impulses” and “worst inclinations.” ADVERTISEMENT "If senior administration officials think the president of the United States is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th Amendment," Warren told CNN. "The Constitution provides for a procedure whenever the vice president and senior officials think the president can't do his job. It does not provide that senior officials go around the president — take documents off his desk, write anonymous op-eds. ... Every one of these officials have sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States. It's time for them to do their job,” she added. The author of the Times op-ed said the idea of removing Trump from office had already been floated by his top aides. “Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the Cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over,” the administration official wrote. Warren denied such a move precipitate a constitutional crisis and argued that the op-ed presented a clear need for change in the oval office. "What kind of a crisis do we have if senior officials believe that the president can't do his job and then refuse to follow the rules that have been laid down in the Constitution?" she asked. "They can't have it both ways. Either they think that the president is not capable of doing his job, in which case they follow the rules in the Constitution, or they feel that the president is capable of doing his job, in which case they follow what the President tells them to do." The White House came out swinging against the op-ed Wednesday, with Trump calling the author “gutless” and arguing he or she committed an act of treason. "This coward should do the right thing and resign,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. The impact of the op-ed is compounded by the release of excerpts from Watergate journalist Bob Woodward’s upcoming book about the inner workings of the Trump administration. The book includes damaging anecdotes such as Trump calling Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsCNN reporter's phone and email records secretly obtained by Trump administration: report Biden looks to expand legal assistance for minorities, low-income Americans One quick asylum fix: How Garland can help domestic violence survivors MORE “mentally retarded,” chief of staff John Kelly John Francis KellyMORE calling Trump an “idiot” and former Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn Gary David CohnOn The Money: Wall Street zeros in on Georgia runoffs | Seven states sue regulator over 'true lender' rule on interest rates | 2021 deficit on track to reach .3 trillion Former Trump economic aide Gary Cohn joins IBM The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by the UAE Embassy in Washington, DC - Trump OKs transition; Biden taps Treasury, State experience MORE removing a letter from Trump’s desk to prevent him from pulling out of a trade deal with South Korea. The 25th Amendment provides a procedure for replacing the president involving his Cabinet sending a letter to Congress explaining why the president should no longer be in office. Congress would then need a two-thirds vote in both chambers to remove the president and replace him with the vice president. While a handful of Democrats in Congress have discussed impeachment, efforts to remove Trump from office before 2020 have largely been dismissed by Democratic leaders such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiGOP leaders face new calls to boot Greene Biden, Bass press for police reform after meeting Floyd family Kinzinger calls for Greene to be removed from GOP conference after Holocaust remark MORE (Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.). Warren, who is running for reelection this year in a race she is expected to easily win, is considered by many to be one of many potential 2020 candidates for president. Warren has feuded with Trump in the past, emerging as a prominent critic of the administration. Trump in turn has repeatedly dismissed her as “Pocahontas,” referring to her controversial claims of having Native American ancestry.<doc-sep>US Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts told a TV news reporter that if Trump administration officials are so worried about the country, they should invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office. Warren’s comments to CNN reporter Manu Raju on Thursday came after an explosive New York Times op-ed written by a senior administration official claiming that a group of staffers is trying to sabotage parts of Trump’s agenda from inside the White House. The senator reportedly said that instead of trying to filch documents off Trump’s desk before he sees or signs him — as claimed in Bob Woodward’s new book, “Fear” — or writing anonymous opinion pieces, those within the White House should “uphold the Constitution of the United States,” invoking a Belichickian mantra: “It’s time for them to do their job.”<doc-sep>
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Thursday said senior Trump administration officials should consider invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office. The call comes as the Trump administration is reeling from widespread allegations of mutiny within the White House. "If senior administration officials think the President of the United States is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th Amendment," Warren told CNN. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Thursday said Trump administration officials should consider invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office, becoming perhaps the most prominent member of Congress to suggest such a move. "If senior administration officials think the President of the United States is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th Amendment," Warren, a rumored potential 2020 presidential candidate, told CNN. The Massachusetts senator cited allegations in Bob Woodward's forthcoming book, "Fear," which portrays the Trump administration as a chaotic, disunited entity. She also referenced a bombshell New York Times op-ed from an unidentified senior Trump administration official who claimed there's a "quiet resistance" to the president in the White House. "The Constitution provides for a procedure whenever the vice president and senior officials think the President can't do his job," Warren said. "It does not provide that senior officials go around the president – take documents off his desk, write anonymous op-eds. ... Every one of these officials have sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States. It's time for them to do their job." Warren suggested the country is in "crisis" when senior officials don't believe the president can do his job and "refuse to follow the rules that have been laid down in the Constitution." "They can't have it both ways," Warren said. "Either they think that the President is not capable of doing his job in which case they follow the rules in the Constitution, or they feel that the President is capable of doing his job, in which case they follow what the President tells them to do." Under Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution, if the vice president and a majority of sitting Cabinet members conclude the president is not able to "discharge the powers and duties of his office," then the vice president becomes acting president. The would have to write a letter to the president pro tempore of the Senate (currently Sen. Orrin Hatch) and the speaker of the House of Representatives (currently Rep. Paul Ryan) and inform them they do not believe the president is able to continue fulfilling his duties. Two-thirds of both chambers of Congress would then have 21 days to vote on whether keep the vice president in charge — otherwise power would automatically transfer back to the president.