Congresswoman Jackie Speier (Dem, California-14) on Tuesday spoke with CNN's Jim Sciutto about the necessity for Congress and Vice President Pence to begin exploring the 25th Amendment in light of President Trump's increasingly "erratic" behavior.



The 25th Amendment allows the vice president and cabinet to relieve the president of power if they believe he is incapable. "It is really in the court of the Vice President, and the majority of those members of the cabinet to make that determination at that point-- Whether or not that incapacity is preventing him from doing his job," Speier said.



Next she makes the case that Trump's language blaming both sides for the violent incident last week in Charlottesville was "abusive" and the president was "telling from his soul what he thought."



"It is an indication to me that there is some trouble there," she said. "I'm concerned for the American people, I am concerned about him having his finger on the [nuclear] button."







JACKIE SPEIER: There is a growing mountain of evidence that the president has been very erratic. Has shown mental instability. It was crystallized last week with the combination of his comments about 'fire and fury' that he offered up against Kim Jong Un in North Korea and how we would 'take him out.'



Followed by his back-and-forth on Charlottesville, and how he really became almost abusive, in calling people out, when he was telling from his soul what he thought about the Charlottesville incident.



And I think the combination of those, coupled with the fact that there has been a lot of people behind the scenes talking about his instability, in Congress, for some time now. If you go back in time six years, and watch interviews he gave then, when he could put a full sentence together, but now tends to put a few words together and go off into another sentence unrelated to the first. It is an indication to me that there is some trouble there...



I'm concerned for the American people, I am concerned about him having his finger on the [nuclear] button...



[The 25th Amendment] has been invoked before, for George W. Bush, it was put in place when he had a colonoscopy, and then he re-established his presidency after the test was done...



[That] was temporary... That's why I'm suggesting that it is really in the court of the Vice President, and the majority of those members of the cabinet to make that determination at that point-- Whether or not that incapacity is preventing him from doing his job.



