Democrats Invite Psychiatrist To Capitol After She Calls President Unstable, Violent, Danger To Public Health

“The president’s behavior in the Cabinet Room, the Rose Garden, and subsequently was justifiably alarming, but it is about time we recognize that we are dealing with someone who is not capable of thinking rationally—our report on the Mueller report has proven that. Rather, the media have not served the public well with the constant fixation on Donald Trump’s behavior, which has normalized him without offering a solution—or worse, has widely broadcast his gaslighting and distortion techniques to spread his pathology to a national level.”

That’s the take of Brandy X. Lee, a “forensic psychiatrist” at Yale School of Medicine, who edited “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.”

So, of course, Democrats are planning to bring her and other psychiatrists to Capitol Hill to label Trump unfit for office.

Lee has been cashing in on questioning Trump’s mental capacity, appearing on TV and selling her book.

But the American Psychiatric Association (APA) has told its members to support a decades-long principle that tells psychiatrists they should not offer diagnostic opinions about people they’ve never examined. “We at the APA call for an end to psychiatrists providing professional opinions in the media about public figures whom they have not examined, whether it be on cable news appearances, books, or in social media,” the group wrote. “Arm-chair psychiatry or the use of psychiatry as a political tool is the misuse of psychiatry and is unacceptable and unethical.”

But Lee doesn’t adhere to that principle. “The president’s condition has been visibly deteriorating to the point where there’s a lot of talk right now about his mental state beyond mental health professionals,” Lee said, even though she’s never examined him. “It no longer takes a mental health professional to recognize the seriousness of the current presidency.”

“Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., who has called for Trump’s impeachment, confirmed the event was in the works, but said it would be more likely to occur in July because lawmakers have a full plate in June with spending bills,” The Washington Examiner reported.

“We’re planning to put together an event,” Yarmuth told the Examiner. “She’s calling it a town hall. We haven’t actually determined the format, but it’s going to be an event where she is going to present her findings, and media will be invited.”

According to Lee, attendees at the town hall would watch a condensed video that was recorded at a Washington, D.C., event held at the National Press Club in March that featured 13 experts discussing how they didn’t think Trump was fit for office. The experts, who came from the fields of mental health, philosophy, history, and journalism, said they were worried about the president’s access to nuclear weapons and the impact his administration would have on climate change.

Lee said the event is to allow members of Congress to ask her and other experts questions, but planners hope the town hall will be broadcast live so that people who aren’t in D.C. also would be able to watch and submit questions.

Lee said the experts won’t make specific recommendations about whether Congress should consider invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office or whether they should do so by impeachment. The political process should be determined by members of Congress, she said.

Yarmuth said that, to him, the event was a separate question from impeachment. “I don’t think an assessment of someone’s mental health is an impeachable issue,” he said.

He decided to hold the event “for the same fears she has,” he said, referring to Lee. “That the president is manifesting dangerous behavior and the American people need to be alert to it.”

“Their position is that as professionals, when they see patterns of behavior that are endangering people, that they have a professional obligation to go public and alert the people who are threatened, and in this case it’s the American people,” Yarmuth said. “I think the American people deserve to have wider dissemination of that perspective.”

 

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