Biden won a majority of votes in the Electoral College. That is how he became vice president. The party nominating process is irrelevant as a matter of constitutional law; Obama NEVER had the authority to name Biden or anyone else to the office.
The problem with that premise is that (in this construct) the fully plausible argument of fraud on the face of the ticket.
THE face of the ticket - was Obama. Biden dropped out of the primaries long before, as a non-viable contender. The reason the electors gave him a majority of votes was because he was Obama’s selection for the number two position on the ticket.
The majority of the ticket’s appeal to voters was Obama - without him, the ticket went nowhere.
Biden at the head of the ticket probably would not have carried ten states. The taint of having been selected by Obama would be too much; the fact of having been “voted” upon, or ratified by the electors would be seen as a technicality. I doubt they would stick with him.
It is wide open as to how much Pelosi might be tainted by all of it. She would be a terrible next choice, having been the principle author of the $787 billion stimulus bill.
I have no idea how it might all play out. There is no direct precedent for it in American political history.
I think theoretically, if Obama were proven to have been Constitutionally ineligible to run in the first place, he could easily be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, but if the proof were sufficient even without a series of impeachment hearings, the Attorney General would be charged with arresting him.
Holder, Obama’s AG, would be almost certain to lose his job, being an appointee Obama had no right to choose - so then, would he have the actual legal authority to arrest Obama and cause him to be detained, before himself being relieved of his position?!
I think even the lawyers among us are speculating about what the laws say, what the realities are, and how the two would ultimately be reconciled. Something like this is so truly unprecedented that we truly would not know until we arrived there...
AAC