MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (OSBORNE) -- Tennessee is home to one of ten state chapters of the group A Duty to Warn, an organization dedicated to seeing President Donald Trump removed from office.
Duty to Warn is comprised of professionals from the fields of psychology, psychiatry, therapy and social work. Their stated purpose is to warn the nation that, in their opinion, Donald Trump is psychologically unfit to serve as president.
Psychologist Dr. Ed Smith leads the group’s Tennessee chapter.
“We see the entire nation in grave and immediate danger, based just on observable behavior… that tell us that Donald Trump is am imminent risk of harm to other people.”
A Duty to Warn has two policy goals. The first involves removing the president from office by way of the Constitution’s 25th Amendment; a lawful method for removing an unfit president.
The second supports a recent Congressional resolution offered up by California Rep. Ted Lieu calling for restrictions on the president’s ability to launch a nuclear first strike.
Dr. Smith notes this isn’t the first time the mental health community has sounded such an alarm.
“In 1964 there was a magazine that did a national poll of psychiatrists as to the fitness of Barry Goldwater’s psychological fitness for office, and nearly half of those polled said that he was psychologically unfit.”
That incident led mental health associations nationwide to include new ethics guidelines prohibiting member practitioners from making diagnoses without examination, especially of public figures.
Dr. Smith says it serves as a testament to just how serious A Duty To Warn members are, that they would risk violating industry standards to make a pronouncement about President Trump.