The problem with the 25th ‘solution’ is that the writers of the amendment made it very difficult to remove a President who doesn’t agree to the removal. It takes a 2/3rds vote of each House to remove a President against his will. The 25th is harder to pull off than impeachment and conviction.
Think of the political games that could be played in such a situation. Would enough Republicans vote to not remove him and leave their democrat colleagues with a permanent mark of betraying Joe? Would Kamala and the Cabinet make such a move unless they were 100% sure to prevail?
The 25th was written for a Woodrow Wilson situation (and I kind of doubt that it would have been invoked had it been in effect in 1919) and more precisely, a what if Kennedy had survived the head shot but was a ‘vegetable’.
I’ve said for years that the 25th Amendment was really designed for a Cold War type of scenario where the President is out of contact unexpectedly and unable to even pretend he’s capable of carrying out his duties.
Once you carefully read the 25th amendment you quickly realize it is an administrative nightmare if the sitting President resists at all.
There are no good answers on this one—wouldn’t even know how to start to fix it.
And if he DOES step down from running again, he kind has to step down as POTUS, no? Like right now. The best outcome is he stays and loses to Trump. But if he does chicken out and let’s Kamala run for 2024, we should be out with the carving knives to get him out of White House.