Weird History: 14

The 25th Amendment

The 25th Amendment authorizes the vice-president to take over the duties of the president if temporarily incapacitated, or not of sound mind and judgement, which in 1967 was relatively new. There have been only three other times when this has been put in use.

Ronald Regan underwent surgery in 1985 cancerous polyps, and Vice President George H.W. Bush took over the presidency until Regan returned to office.

In 2002, then Vice President Dick Cheney temporarily took over when then President George W. Bush had a colonoscopy that required sedation.

President George W. Bush in 2007 had to undergo the same procedure again, Cheney again took over the Oval Office.

Vice-President Pence was asked to invoke the 25th Ammedment to strip Trump's of his executive powers by the House of Representatives only a few days after the storming of the U.S. Capitol, but Pence refused to do so.

On a side note: George W. Bush is related to two former presidents, his father, George H. W, Bush, and his fourth cousin five-times removed, Franklin Pierce. Barbara Pierce Bush is the only woman in history to be wife of one president, mother to another, and fourth cousin to another.