Following attempts by Democrats to exclude former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballots in more than two dozen states, based on the argument that he violated the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution by the assault on the Capitol, Republicans are calling for President Joe Biden to be removed from office under the 25th Amendment after special counsel Robert Hur's report described him as "an older man with memory problems."
Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday in which she shared her “serious concerns” and asked the federal Cabinet to “explore” the possibility of removing Biden from office. virtue of the 25th Amendment, according to the letter consulted by our sister network NBC News.
The 25th Amendment is a procedure to replace the president in the event of death, resignation, removal or incapacity, which was approved after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
However, for it to be implemented, the vice president and the majority of Cabinet members have to vote to decide whether the sitting president is incapable of holding office.
They must then report his decision to the Senate and House of Representatives.
President Joe Biden at a rally at George Mason University in Manassas, Virginia, on January 23, 2024. Julia Nikhinson / Bloomberg via Getty Images file
Special prosecutor Hur caused a stir Thursday after releasing his 388-page report on Biden's handling of classified material during his time as vice president and senator, which was found in his Delaware home and in a old office.
Hur concluded that the president voluntarily withheld the documents, although he did not press charges against him after describing him as an "old man with a bad memory" who did not remember his time as vice president or when his son died and who would have caused a jury sympathy.
Tenney criticized that argument in his letter to Garland.
“We do not prosecute or refuse to prosecute people based on their personalities or the public's anticipated perception of them,” Tenney wrote.
“If the special prosecutor believes that the evidence constitutes a reasonable basis for filing charges, he must do so.”
Tenney compared Hur's decision in his investigation into Biden to special counsel Jack Smith's filing of charges against former President Donald Trump over his handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
The Justice Department “ethically cannot bring charges” against Trump “because he has mental acuity and a forceful personality” while declining to bring charges against Biden because of his “cognitive impairment,” Tenney argued.
Trump, who faces several charges including intentional withholding of national defense information, false statements and representations, conspiracy to obstruct justice and corrupt concealment of a document, has pleaded not guilty.
The controversy over Biden's mental fitness in Hur's report has plunged the campaign of the 81-year-old president, the oldest in the country's history, into a state of panic due to public doubts about his ability to take the reins. of the Government over the next four years.
And it comes at a time when his main adversary, Trump, 77, is projecting herself as a more forceful alternative to the White House, despite her extensive legal problems and his own lapses in memory.
“It's time for the 25th Amendment”
Tenney's remarks appear to have gained traction among the more conservative circle of lawmakers known as the 'Freedom Caucus.'
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., questioned Biden's fitness to lead the nation for the next four years if he couldn't remember his time as vice president.
He assured that Biden was “an old man incapable of remembering who he is, where he is or what he has done,” so something had to be done about it.
“It's time for the 25th Amendment,” he said.
“If there was ever a time to invoke the 25th Amendment, wouldn't it be now?” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, also asked on social media.
For his part, Congressman Greg Murphy, Republican of North Carolina, was blunt in saying that Biden's current mental and physical state “should prevent him from being president of the United States,” while the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan stated that Hur's report demonstrated that there was “a double standard of justice” in the US in reference to Trump's accusations.
“There has never been a stronger case for the 25th Amendment than now,” said Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., bluntly.
Biden's angry defense
After the report was published, President Biden was upset at a press conference in which he said he had put the United States “back on its feet” and told Hur that he did not need his recommendation.
“How the hell dare you bring that up?”
Biden said angrily.
“Frankly, when they asked me the question, I thought to myself that it was none of their damn business.”
The president assured that his memory “was fine” and he defined himself as a “well-intentioned” man, although he later confused the president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, with that of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Biden's lawyers tried unsuccessfully to have some “inflammatory” descriptions of the president's memory removed, believing them to misrepresent what happened.
[Biden did not even remember when his son died, according to the special prosecutor. But he questions it: “My memory is fine”]
Biden's age is back in focus
The conclusions of the report, the wave of Republican attacks and Biden's angry defense - including the slip - have put the president's age at the height of the debate months after a new head-to-head with Trump in the November electoral process .
Biden, the oldest president in the history of the United States, has had to endure questions about his age on repeated occasions, on the way to his intention to be re-elected to the position.
However, Hur's conclusions have caused fear among Democrats accustomed to defending the president from Republican attacks - including Trump - every time he appears in public due to his slow, sometimes confusing way of speaking.
Biden's campaign itself was already aware that a victory for the president in November depended heavily on his ability to convince voters that he was still fit for office and that Trump, 77, was a threat to democracy in the country. country.
[Supreme Court seems skeptical about arguments to remove Trump from Colorado ballot]
“It's a nightmare,” a Democratic member of the House of Representatives who requested anonymity to offer a frank assessment told NBC News, adding that “it weakens President Biden electorally, and Donald Trump would be a disaster and an authoritarian.” .
“For Democrats, we are in a bleak situation,” he said.
A January poll by NBC News found that 76% of voters have significant or moderate concerns about Biden's mental and physical health.
“It's been a problem long before this happened,” said one veteran Democratic operative, who noted that when focus groups are asked to apply a word to Biden, it is often “old.”
David Axelrod, Barack Obama's former strategist, told The New York Times that Hur's report was so troubling to Democrats because it "goes to the core of what's affecting Biden politically now, which is a widespread fear that he won't It is at the height".
The advisor added that “the most harmful things in politics are those that confirm people's pre-existing suspicions, and those are the ones that travel very quickly.
It's a problem".
What was already a good day for Trump on Thursday, after the Supreme Court expressed skepticism about the arguments to remove him from the ballot during a crucial hearing, ended up being an extraordinary one thanks to his resounding victory in the Nevada and Nevada caucuses. to the boost that Hur's report has given to his campaign.
Trump, who was also victorious on Thursday in the Virgin Islands caucuses and is closer to the Republican presidential nomination, found in the conclusions of this report a reaffirmation of the incapacity that he has always spoken of when referring to Biden's work.