Only idiots “seriously consider” that because it wouldn’t work. It can literally only work if the President is comatose or something and can’t write a letter.
If the President is conscious, then it would require a larger majority in Congress than simple impeachment.
“It can literally only work if the President is comatose or something and can’t write a letter.”
Like Joe Biden?
The writers of the 25th were acutely aware of its potential for ‘shenanigans’ so they wrote it to make it exceptionally difficult to invoke for a conscious President.
Before the nuclear age, there was no need for the President to be able to take action on a moment’s or even a day’s notice. We weren’t likely to be invaded by either Canada or Mexico. So a nearly helpless Wilson in 1919 wasn’t really a threat to national security.
But Eisenhower’s heart attacks and the nightmare scenario of JFK’s surviving the assassination attempt but as ‘vegetable’ meant they had to have a way to remove a helpless President.
As you say, if the President objects to being removed, he writes a letter to that effect and both houses of Congress have to vote by 2/3rds majority to remove him. The fact that the process has to be initiated by the President’s own VP and Cabinet also limits the chances for the 25th to be used as a way to stage a coup.
But the democrats certainly were prepared to try. From the moment of their election there were calls for Trump and Pence to be removed from office so that Speaker Pelosi could be installed as President. And before that they talked of not approving VP Agnew’s replacement by Ford to accomplish overturning the 49-state wipeout they suffered in 1972.