Posted on 07/19/2024 8:01:59 AM PDT by Reno89519
Pressure to step aside as nominee continues to mount against President Joe Biden from members of his own party following a disastrous debate performance that put Biden’s cognitive decline on full display. But if Democrats want to get rid of Biden as nominee, they need to use the 25th Amendment. Anything else is an attempted coup.
More than a dozen congressional Democrats have called on Biden to step down as the nominee alongside left-wing talking heads and Hollywood elites. Reports indicate former President Barack Obama is also nudging his former No. 2 to pass the torch.
Democrats want to have their cake and eat it too, by getting rid of Biden the nominee but keeping Biden the current president. But that’s not how it works.
Had Biden not shot himself in the foot by demanding an earlier debate, the White House and left-wing corporate media might have continued to get away with hiding the president’s visible struggles from voters. Back in February, after Special Counsel Robert Hur described Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory” who wasn’t fit to be charged with a “serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness,” Democrats didn’t call for Biden to step down. They could cast doubt on the report and shield Biden from the public with few to no questions asked.
At the debate, however, it couldn’t be hidden: Biden was unable to put together coherent sentences, let alone walk off the stage unassisted. Now that Biden’s mental and physical limitations have become a political liability for Democrats and their electoral prospects, high-ranking Democrats are running a public pressure campaign to prevent Biden from being the nominee. As The Federalist’s Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway explained, efforts by “coup-plotters” to coerce Biden’s exit by leaking their concerns to corporate media don’t indicate that a Biden withdrawal would be a “dignified exit.”
But if Biden is so incapacitated he can’t be the nominee, he certainly cannot remain president for the next six months.
Luckily for Democrats, there is a process, created in 1967, to remove a president who is “unable” to carry out his role. The 25th Amendment says the president himself may submit a written declaration to the president pro tempore of the Senate and speaker of the House that “he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” and would therefore transfer such powers and duties to the vice president.
But in the event the sitting president will not submit such a declaration, there is another option:
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
In layman’s terms, Vice President Kamala Harris could convene members of the cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Biden from office. And while the definition of “unable” is ambiguous, Jay Berman, who was an aide to the senator who sponsored the amendment, told The New York Times that there is a “clear distinction between unfit, which is basically a political judgment, and unable.”
Biden is not simply “unfit,” he is “unable” to do basic presidential duties — like staying awake and cognizant past 4:00 p.m. (Biden is “more likely to have verbal miscues and become fatigued” outside the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., White House aides admitted to Axios.) Common and major verbal misses like referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Vladimir Putin, or telling reporters Trump was his vice president, point to a lack of a basic ability to grasp subject matter.
Biden, speaking to Democratic governors shortly after the debate, said he tires out easily and needs more sleep and less work, The Times reported. Meanwhile, current and former officials who met with Biden behind closed doors over recent months said Biden would become confused and “listless,” as described by the NYT. The Wall Street Journal, citing two unnamed sources, reported that Biden skipped a meeting with German officials to go to sleep early and instead sent Secretary Of State Antony Blinken. The State Department disputed the report.
Biden also physically struggles to do basic things like walk up stairs or off a stage. Video footage, which the White House wrongly labeled a “cheap fake,” showed former President Barack Obama leading Biden off stage after the president froze while staring at the crowd. First Lady Jill Biden was also caught on camera having to help Biden off the stage after the presidential debate.
Whether Biden is Democrats’ best bet or not, primary voters already chose him. The only acceptable excuse for rejecting those voters’ decision is if Biden is constitutionally unable to serve as president. And if that is the case, Democrats had better be prepared to invoke the 25th Amendment. Conversely, if Biden is able to continue his presidential duties, an attempt to undermine him by party leadership and other Democrats amounts to nothing less than a coup attempt.
No they don’t. They will just do whatever they want and friendly “judges” will let them
That's an argument, but it's not a legal argument. There's nothing in the law that says Biden must stay in the race if he stays as President.
Biden is the President until Jan 20. He could remove himself from the race and free up his delegates. Doesn’t change anything. Thing is, if he releases his delegates, either Harris is the de facto nominee or the Biden Campaign will have to refund the $92.1 million in political donations to the donors.
The DNC doesn’t want that so they are scrambling to find a solution. Not to replace Biden, but to claim the $92.1 million.
The thing is…Kamala herself would have to initiate this process…one of the only real powers designated to the VP.
Does she have the support of at least half the Cabinet….and the party power brokers like Pelosi and Schumer to do this successfully?
Seems doubtful.
It would be historic in a bad way, messy divisive and contentious, prove the democrats are screw-ups for letting it get this bad, require a period of medical testing and certification of incapacity…and all in place of a campaigning for an election only 100 days from now…that also affects all the down ballot candidates
Kamala seems to be ambitious and feeling the party owes her this one. Calculated to force them to accept her or lose the DEI high horse Biden has been riding. Her window to call the 25th is ending or ended so she is running out the clock.
If she figures out they are going to dump replace and betray her, practically ending her political career in the most embarrassing way…who knows how she’ll retaliate. A woman scorned.
Excellent article.
Everyone seems to forget that this alzheimers patient is still President of the USA. If he’s not fit to be the candidate, he’s certainly not fit to be President.
Democrats and their party are showing the worst elements of “democracy” - mob rule, with emotions and information manipulated by power-brokers behind the scenes.
The glaring problem with the 25th is that Harris and half of the Cabinet have to be 100% sure that either Biden won’t object (Biden need only sign two letters) or that they have the 2/3rds majority in both House and Senate to remove him. And how can they be sure that enough Republicans will go along to install Harris as President?
Option 4: Executive action.
Ticking away the moments that lead up to election day
Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in Chi-town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying to the crowd, cant avoid the pain
He is old and his life is short and there is no time to kill today
And then one day you find 4 years have got behind you
No one told him when to poop and you missed Trump with a gun
DNC doesn’t care about the Constitution. They do what they want. It’s disgusting.
They will never admit he is not fit, just that he can’t win. He will withdraw his nomination, but maintain office until the end of his term, then there is no need for the 25th.
Biden doesn't just go away. He remains President, just unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Harris becomes Acting President until such time as Biden is again able to discharge the powers and duties of his office.
This means that Biden remains in the residence and Jill remains First Lady. The White House essentially becomes a nursing home for Biden while Harris works in his office.
Is THAT the image the Democrats want to take into the campaign? Will we see the White House Press Corp constantly asking KJP what Biden's condition is today?
Also, Harris doesn't get her own administration. I suppose she can start firing Biden's Cabinet members and try to get her own people into position in the final six months of the term, but that would be ruthless. She'd be replacing the very people she needed to invoke the 25th amendment. I'd also think that there would be an appeal to SCOTUS to rule on the limits of the "Acting" powers -- can the Acting President make staff changes during the interim that she's discharging the powers and duties of the President's office?
It's going to be a complete optics mess if they don't get Biden to resign the office at the same time as quitting the election.
-PJ
Rules?
Constitution?
Election integrity?
Who here has forgotten The Steal?
The Regime is currently in full control of virtually every agency and the drive by’s.
“Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat”.
So he’ll be doing his party a favor by hanging on to the bitter end?
Soft coup attempt by Obama? What they did not anticipate was that Jill and Hunter were going to hold on to power no matter what.
And in that situation everyone needs to remind them via a death by a thousand cuts to keep that dealing with that issue through November 5th. If they have to deal with it daily, they will have no time to talk about and promote their replacement candidate.
I’ll take number 3, Alex
Ah, if she cannot even organize a 25th Amendment coup, how can see be qualified to be president?
“3: Let Biden run for reelection and lose.”
I believe this is their only option, yet it’s not going to be possible to keep Biden functioning until November. Ultimately, IMO it is probably better for them to take their medicine earlier rather than later, because the efforts to keep Biden propped up between now and “whenever” are going to be seen as clumsy, frantic, desperate. Which will not be an inaccurate assessment.
Can they “uphabilitate” Kamala between now and then so that she becomes more credible? Old dogs/new tricks. Doubt it.
Whether or not he should remain in office is a separate question. Do the Dems want to invoke the 25th?
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