Republican plan calls for declaration that Biden 'unable' to be president
Joe Biden in the first presidential debate in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, June 27, 2024.
The issue has been in the news for months, even years, what with the many verbal gaffes and mistakes and physical falls and blunders of Joe Biden, but many Americans perhaps saw for themselves evidence of his cognitive decline first-hand for the first time during his presidential debate with President Trump.
Some Democrats continue to believe him capable of carrying out the duties of his office, others are openly wondering about a replacement, and what the situation means for the future of their party.
Republicans openly are focusing on how the threat America faces with a president in decline, and one is offering a solution.
The Washington Stand reports it is U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who has introduced H.R. 1336, "[c]alling on Vice President Kamala D. Harris to convene and mobilize the principal officers of the executive departments of the Cabinet to activate section 4 of the 25th Amendment to declare President Joseph R. Biden incapable of executing the duties of his office and to immediately exercise powers as Acting President."
The same amendment allows a president to disqualify himself, but the report said, "Biden has defied calls to loosen his grip on the office he first sought 36 years ago."
So Section 4 is to address presidents "who cannot, or will not, step aside."
It provides that the vice president and either "a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide" can notify the chief congressional leaders that the president "is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office."
The decision-making process then falls to the vice president.
Congress also can declare a president unfit by a two-thirds vote.
The 2024 election is only months away, and the constitutional process addressing an unfit president could prove to take longer than that, the report noted.
Former congressman Jody Hice pointed out there are electoral advantages to having a president of the opposite party who stumbles over simple words and often cannot complete a sentence.
The report noted while many Democrats, publicly, aren't making much of the issue, "their private reaction has been described as a panicked freakout," the report said.
That has spilled over into the media in some instances.
MSNBC's Katy Tur reported, "I heard from a Democratic lawmaker, a member of Congress, who has been a strong supporter of President Biden’s who suggested the possibility of perhaps an open convention or replacing President Biden on the ticket."
And Van Jones, a CNN analyst who formerly was a green jobs czar for Barack Obama, said, "There’s time for this party to figure out a different way forward."
TV personality Joy Reid said, "campaign people," "Democratic operatives" and "Obama or administration" sources found Biden "extremely feeble."
Reid explained while Biden may believe himself able to run a campaign against President Donald Trump, the party doesn't share that faith.
The legacy media, long diehard fans of Biden, have turned, with headlines from the New York Times, National Review and the Washington Post to include, "To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race," "President Biden, be like LBJ, whose choice to bow out was hugely popular" and "Trump is too dangerous for Democrats to stick with Biden."
Biden supporters like the Associated Press, NBC and others already have outlined the process that would be used to dump Biden.
Polls already show nearly half of the Democrat party wants Biden gone, and overall 72% of Americans say Biden no longer has the "mental and cognitive health" needed to be president.
One of the difficulties facing Democrats is the rules regarding financing.
"The Biden for President campaign committee had $91.5 million cash on hand as of May 31. The campaign cannot transfer that amount to any other candidate except Vice President Kamala Harris, who has lower approval ratings than Biden. It could convert the campaign into an independent super PAC, but that entity could not legally coordinate expenditures with the new campaign and would have to pay higher advertising rates. Or the Biden campaign could return the funds to donors and hope they fund the new candidate, quickly," the report explained.
The proposal is:
"Whereas President Joseph R. Biden has repeatedly and publicly demonstrated his inability to discharge the powers and duties of the Presidency, including, among others, the powers and duties of the Commander-in-Chief: Now, therefore, be it
"Resolved, That the House of Representatives calls upon Vice President Kamala D. Harris—
"(1) to immediately use her powers under section 4 of the 25th Amendment to convene and mobilize the principal officers of the executive departments in the Cabinet to declare that President Joseph R. Biden is unable to discharge the duties and powers of the office; and
"(2) to transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives notice that she will be immediately assuming the powers and duties of the office as Acting President."
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