Apparently, some GOP members of the House are looking to throw more gasoline on the fire in a vain attempt to prop themselves up politically in the future. One of those people is Rep. Adam Kinzinger. He is now calling for Trump’s cabinet to exercise the 25th Amendment and remove the President from office.

GOP Rep. Kinzinger calls for invoking 25th amendment https://t.co/wXGS5T87fO

— Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) January 7, 2021

I’ve seen a lot of dumb statements over the last 24 hours, but this takes the cake, both because of how destructive it’d be and because it’d be a complete abuse of the constitutional provision in question.

Let’s be clear. The 25th Amendment is not meant to remove a president because he gave a speech lamenting what he believes to be widespread voter fraud, no matter how much you think that speech was out of line. Regardless of whether you like Trump’s accusations about the election being stolen or not, you simply can not draw a straight enough line from that to some morons storming the Capitol, to justify invoking the 25th Amendment. Further, Trump has already basically conceded the election. He did so in a statement admitting the process is over and that the transition will be peaceful. In two weeks, he will be gone. To remove him now would just be political showmanship done by selfish politicians looking to cover their own tails.

Besides, if you want to truly set the country on fire, abusing the power of the government to remove Trump right before he leaves office would be the perfect way to do it. People would look at it, rightfully so, as confirmation that our government is out of control and only cares about the rules when it benefits them. Almost everyone condemns the rioting yesterday, including (from what I see) the majority of people posting in the comments on this site. In other words, you can believe the rioting was wrong without believing the Constitution should be set on fire to make the CNN set feel good.

Kinzinger’s call is simply one that will create more unrest and violence, not less. He knows better, and the fact that he’s been a largely anti-Trump figure is not an excuse to be stupid and destructive. Yesterday, we had other conservatives also calling to “waive” the rules and remove Trump. Again, that’s stupid and destructive. It’s also completely pointless. Do that, and there truly will be nothing left to conserve.

(Please follow me on Twitter! @bonchieredstate)