October, 12 2017, 04:45pm EDT
Legal Advocacy Group Files Urgent Freedom Of Information Act Request Of Government Information On Whether President Trump Is A "Moron."
Free Speech For People files FOIA Requests to the Department of State, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Homeland Security for any communication referring to the President as a “Moron”, “imbecile” or “the 25th Amendment.”
WASHINGTON
Free Speech For People filed a series of Freedom of Information Act requests today with the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to obtain any records related to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's comments about Trump's mental capacity, including any references to the President as a moron or imbecile, to determine whether Cabinet members are attempting to cover up the diminished mental capacity of a President who is unfit to serve.
These FOIA requests seek to determine whether the Cabinet is upholding its obligation to act in the best interest of the nation. In recent days, reporters have revealed a heightened fear among senior officials that the President is "unraveling." Under Trump's command, Cabinet members and even high-ranking Republicans have reportedly questioned whether Trump has the mental capacity to serve as President. Americans have a right to know whether the President is mentally fit for office, and the Cabinet and Congress have a responsibility to protect the country if he is not.
The 25th Amendment to the Constitution, Section 4 provides for the removal of a President who is unable to carry out his duties whether due to physical or mental incapacity. In the past few months it has been reported that high level officers at the Pentagon thought the President was going to declare war via twitter without any advance notice to the military and that the President is suffering from dementia or some other form of illness that results in diminished mental capacity and a lack of impulse control. As more evidence comes to light about the level and scope of concern about the potential impacts of the President's mental instability, it is clear that the public has an urgent need to understand exactly how compromised our national security is and what steps they are taking to address concerns before it becomes a national or even international emergency.
Free Speech For People is seeking expedited review for all records created or sent to Secretary Tillerson regarding the President's mental capacity, including whether Cabinet officials have considered requiring the President to undergo a medical examination. The public needs to know the extent of the danger and whether Cabinet officials are taking measures to defuse it. The Constitution provides a remedy if the President is unfit.
Read the FOIA request to the U.S. Department of State.
Read the FOIA request to the U.S. Department of Defense.
Read the FOIA request to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Free Speech For People is a national non-partisan non-profit organization founded on the day of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC that works to defend our democracy and our Constitution.
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In Wake of Killing, UnitedHealth CEO Admits 'No One Would Design a System Like the One We Have'
One critic said UnitedHealth Group chief executive Andrew Witty should "resign and then dedicate every dollar he has to dismantling the current system brick by brick and building one based on public health in its stead."
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Witty declared that his firm, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare and the nation's largest private insurer, is "willing to partner with anyone, as we always have—healthcare providers, employers, patients, pharmaceutical companies, governments, and others—to find ways to deliver high-quality care and lower costs."
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"Medicare for All is the only proposal on the table capable of delivering universal, continuous coverage for everyone, while also securing the efficiency and savings only possible through the elimination of private insurance."
While publicly pledging to cooperate with reform efforts, Witty has defended his company's care denials in private and urged his employees not to engage with media outlets in the aftermath of Thompson's murder.
Contrary to Witty's depiction of his company in his Times op-ed, UnitedHealth has historically been an aggressive opponent of reform efforts aimed at mitigating the harms of for-profit insurance and building public alternatives. The Leverreported in 2021 that UnitedHealth Group "held a webinar to pressure its rank-and-file employees to mobilize against efforts in Connecticut to create a state-level public health insurance option."
At the national level, UnitedHealth has spent over $5.8 million this year lobbying the federal government, according to OpenSecrets.
Witty, who was born in a country with a public healthcare system, did not detail the kinds of reforms he would support in his op-ed Friday, but it's clear he would oppose a transition to a single-payer system such as Medicare for All, which would effectively abolish private health insurance and provide coverage to all Americans for free at the point of service—and at a lower total cost than the status quo.
In a column for The Nation on Friday, writer Natalie Shure argued that "the appalling amount of resources and energy we put into maintaining the existence of health insurance is wasted on an industry with no social value whatsoever."
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