Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., said members of President Joe Biden's cabinet should
When asked in his own party calling for the 25th Amendment, Johnson said it’s up to Biden’s Cabinet to make that decision, and he asked them “to search their hearts” and “do our duty to do best by the American ,” Politico reported.
Comedian Jon Stewart also mentioned the 25th Amendment in his post-debate analysis on “The Daily Show” Thursday night, showing clips of Biden while Trump was talking and saying he looked “not great, but a lot of have resting 25th Amendment face.”
“If I were in the Cabinet … I would be having that discussion with my colleagues at the Cabinet level,” Johnson reportedly said Friday. “We'll see what action they take. It’s a serious situation.”
The 25th Amendment allows for the vice president and Cabinet to give “their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” Following that, the vice president immediately assumes powers as the acting president, according to Section 4 of the 25th Amendment.
It’s unlikely. After declaring Biden is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” a two-thirds majority of both chambers of Congress would then have to vote to approve stripping the president of his powers. If Congress did not vote to support the removal, Biden would resume the position.
This is not the first time Republicans or others have suggested invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Biden from office. In February after the release of the special counsel’s report highlighting Biden’s alleged memory issues, at least six lawmakers and a number of other right-wing figures called for the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment. At that point, Johnson did not call for the Amendment to be invoked, but said the report showed Biden was “certainly unfit for the Oval Office.” Similar calls were also made when Trump was in office. After Jan. 6, there were reports that members of Trump’s administration were considering invoking the amendment.
Calls for the 25th Amendment on Friday stemmed from Biden’s performance at his first debate with Trump on Thursday. Trump was broadly declared the winner of Thursday’s debate, and Biden was criticized by his own party and Republicans for his performance. Just 30 minutes into the debate, Biden was difficult to hear in part because of a hoarse voice. He lost his train of thought and had to correct himself a number of times and some of his answers were unintelligible. A number of left-leaning pundits said after the debate that Biden should consider dropping out, with some saying the debate was “worse than I believe most imagined” and “hard to watch.”
At a rally Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina, Biden said: “I don’t walk as easy as I used to, I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to, I don’t debate as well as I used to.” But, he added he would not be running “if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul I can do this job.”
Twitter. . Molly Bohannon
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