Pence’s Office Dismisses Report that He Would Have Supported Removing Trump on 25th Amendment Grounds

Updated 1:35pm

Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary hit back Thursday against the allegation, included in an upcoming book by an anonymous senior administration official, that Pence would have supported an effort to oust President Trump on 25th Amendment grounds if the majority of the cabinet was in favor of it.

“FAKE NEWS,” Press Secretary Katie Waldman tweeted in response to a Huffington Post report that revealed the claim will be included in the book, which will be published on November 19.

Pence later denied the claim himself, saying that administration officials who do not support Trump’s agenda should resign.

“You know when those rumors came out a few years ago, I dismissed them then,” Pence said. “If there is someone who is in our administration or who has served in our administration [who] doesn’t support this president, doesn’t support his agenda, he should resign.”

The information nugget will appear in the book “A Warning,” written by the same current or former senior government official who wrote an anonymous op-ed last year in the New York Times claiming that “senior officials in [Trump’s] own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.”

The book claims that senior White House officials were certain Pence would support removing Trump on mental incapacity grounds, as provided for in the 25th Amendment, as long as a majority of the Cabinet signed a letter approving the move. White House officials allegedly did an informal tally of which Cabinet members would sign such a letter, which would then be submitted to Pence for his signature.

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution stipulates that the vice president will assume the duties of the president if the nation’s commander-in-chief is deemed unfit to perform them.

The murmurs of an attempt to remove Trump on 25th Amendment grounds circulated around the time Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in May, 2017 over his handling of the investigations into Hillary Clinton’s private email server as well as Russian election interference. The ensuing controversy over Comey’s dismissal caused Trump to behave erratically, White House officials said, according to the book.