If Democrats Want A New Nominee, They Need To Use The 25th Amendment

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.

I laid out the Democrats' path forward here on July 7.

The Democrats are stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place.
On the one hand, they enjoy being able to say that the only President who resigned from office is a Republican. They can also point to the saying that the coverup is worse than the crime.
On the other hand, they're faced with a worse coverup: hiding a sick President who is senile and unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office so they can retain their majorities in Congress and their own personal power.
Their options are limited, and each has its own pitfalls but little advantage.
Pursue the 25th amendment.
This option will take some to carry out, but it has the most pitfalls. All it takes to invoke the 25th amendment is for the Vice President to get a majority of the Cabinet to declare the President as being unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Harris will then become Acting President while still retaining her tie-breaking vote on the Senate as Vice President. If Biden protests then Congress will have to get involved, but the current state of Republicans in the House will not stand in the way and Biden will eventually be declared unfit.
The pitfall is that once Biden is declared unable to carry out his duties, pressure will mount for him to step down as President altogether. This isn't a case of a temporary infirmity or undergoing a surgical procedure; this is a permanent incapacity.
If Biden resigns from office, each party will now "own" a resigned President. At this point, it will be up to partisan historians and a biased LAAP-dog media to sort out how much people knew and when they knew it regarding Biden's health and mental state. Was an incompetent candidate knowingly foisted upon an unaware electorate by crass power-seekers who lied to the American people for their own personal gain? Or was the Democrat party itself incompetent and unaware of Biden's infirmities?
The American people will have to settle that one.
If Biden refuses to resign, he will still be President, but a President with no powers and duties. He will roam the hallways of the residence, while Jill Biden still retains the duties of the First Lady.
Donald Trump will run on a campaign that attacks the Democrats for abusing the White House and hammer the message that Democrats are untrustworthy and do not deserve to be sent back.
Pursue impeachment and removal.
This is a more difficult approach because it involves both chambers of Congress and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Democrats will have to come up with a charge on which to base impeachment without making it historically toxic for them, and then get Republicans to pass it for them.
The "core" constitutional crimes for impeachment are Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Treason is a dangerous crime because of the possibility of capital punishment. One could argue that covering up an infirm candidate in order to "take" the White House is a de facto coup d'etat and is therefore treasonous. However, this would indict the entire Democrat party as co-conspirators and so is a non-starter.
Bribery is a possibility if the Democrats want to finally admit that the Bidens are a crime family that has sold access to power and provided decades of quid pro quo in return. The Democrats could contain the fallout to just the Bidens, but they may have to sacrifice some of Biden's most ardent defenders in exchange for Republican cooperation (Raskin? Goldman?).
However, Democrats will now own the only President who was convicted and removed from office via impeachment.
other high Crimes and Misdemeanors is a catch-all for substantial lapses in ethics or conduct becoming the highest office in the land. Democrats could pursue this approach by declaring that Biden as Commander-in-Chief is too sick to understand the ramifications of his decisions, and is therefore behaving in a manner that damages the reputation of the United States and the readiness of our armed forces. They could literally say that they have lost confidence in the Commander-in-Chief and require his removal from office for the safety and security of the nation.
This is probably the most "noble" of the three options, but Democrats will still own the only President who was convicted and removed from office via impeachment.
Let Biden run for reelection and lose.
This is probably the easiest option for Democrats to pursue. It will require them to likely accept losing the Presidency and perhaps a few House and Senate seats, too. However, it will probably keep the Democrats in the best overall position with the people.
The Democrats will have let "democracy" work. They will not be seen as discarding the primary votes of millions of people.
They can get rid of the "Kamala" problem at the same time as the "Biden" problem, so then can start with a fresh slate in 2028.
They can begin plotting for a comeback in 2026 mid-terms to try to retake the House and the Senate without the baggage of having invoked the 25th amendment or impeachment.
Democrats will just have to bite their tongues and accept a Trump presidency, which goes against every fiber of their bodies.

-PJ

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.