Former Vice President Dick Cheney secretly put a signed resignation letter in a safe shortly after taking office, in part because of concerns about his health, according to excerpts from an NBC News interview.
Cheney, 70, who suffered four heart attacks before becoming President George W. Bush’s vice president, was worried about the possibility “that I might have a heart attack or a stroke that would be incapacitating,” he said in the interview. “There is no mechanism for getting rid of a vice president who can’t function.”
Cheney signed the letter in March 2001, two months after the inauguration. Bush knew about it as did a member of the vice president’s staff, according to the NBC excerpts.
The former vice president has been beset by heart trouble. In February 2010, he was hospitalized for what doctors described as a “mild” heart attack, his fifth, and he underwent surgery later that year to implant a pump to assist his heart.
The interview, set for broadcast on the network’s “Dateline” program Aug. 29 and the “Today” show Aug. 30, was conducted in conjunction with the release next week of Cheney’s memoir, “In My Time.” Cheney said the reaction to some of the revelations in the book will have “heads exploding all over Washington.” The excerpts of the interview released by NBC didn’t elaborate.
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4 Responses
“There is no mechanism for getting rid of a vice president who can’t function.”
What about Article II, Section 4?
That makes sense. The President should have a secret 25th Ammendment letter signed and ready to go too.
Couldn’t Congress impeach the VP if he is incapacitated?
Impeachment is only for crimes, The president can be removed if the cabinat votes that the president is incapacitated but there is no such massure to remove the VP.
Cheney always put America first. How great he is; especially comparing him to the clown of a vice president now. Look at his clowning in China