My letter to NY senators Schumer and Gillibrand
Like many Americans, I waited for Donald Trump to take on the duties of the presidency with great apprehension. I wasn't reassured by his handling of the transition.
Unfortunately, Mr. Trump's performance has fallen far short of my very low expectations. I have become increasingly convinced that he has mental deficits that make it impossible for him to carry on as President of the United States, no matter what ideology anyone finds acceptable.
My wife's Aunt Anna was a charming and personable woman who suffered from a form of dementia late in life that was never successfully diagnosed. She remained charming and personable. You could have an enjoyable conversation with her – as long as the conversation wasn't about anything that had occurred in the last five years. It would become clear that she remembered nothing about those years and was even unaware of the passage of time. In her mind, children that were kindergartners were still infants, married couples were still just courting, and people who had passed away were just about to walk into the room.
This is what Mr. Trump reminds me of. He's someone who lives in his own reality. He can make a stirring speech, but when interacting with people in the real world, he flounders. If he was just somebody's Aunt Anna, his shortcomings would have been apparent long ago, but he's surrounded by enablers and supporters who are either in deep denial or cynically turn a blind eye because they think Mr. Trump can get them what they want.
I don't know if my Aunt Anna ever had a moment when she perceived her own failings. I don't think so. Does Mr. Trump even grasp that it's wildly implausible that he was deprived of a popular-vote victory because millions of Hillary Clinton votes were secretly fraudulent? I don't think he does.
It's time to reach out to your Republican colleagues and steer the conversation toward what many already know in their hearts but are afraid to say: none of us is safe while that mentally debilitated man holds the nuclear launch codes. We need to make serious moves toward invoking the 25th amendment.
This isn't about some sort of backdoor coup to get Hillary Clinton into the Oval Office. It's about the survival of the nation...and the world.
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