MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US VP Harris suggested to invoke the 25th Amendment and oust Biden

Harris said there was no question about her capacity to lead if necessary

West Virginia's Attorney General Patrick Morrisey Tuesday sent a note to US Vice President Kamala Harris asking her to invoke the Constitution's 25th Amendment and remove Joseph Biden from the Presidency citing health issues. The Republican Morrisey based his recommendation on a recent conclusion by Prosecutor Robert Hur, who chose not to file charges against the 81-year-old Biden for keeping classified documents at his home from his tenure as Vice President under Barack Obama (2009-2017). The Hur report described Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory” and noted that the president had exhibited “diminished faculties” in public.

“President Biden's cognitive decline is of great concern to Americans, especially in these times when our nation faces one crisis after another both here and abroad. We need a mentally capable president,” said the West Virginia attorney general who insisted Hur's report “paints a clear picture of a president who is unfit for office,” based on which he urged Harris to make use of an “extreme measure” whereby cabinet members may remove the president from office should they deem him unfit. “Amendment 25 was designed for moments like this,” Morrisey went on. In the event of a refusal, Morrisey asked Harris to leave the decision in the hands of the country's Attorney General, Merrick Garland.

“Merrick Garland has a duty to invoke the 25th Amendment before his fellow Cabinet members. Or to impeach Biden. If he's not going to prosecute him, then let him invoke the 25th now,” Republican Senator Josh Hawley wrote on X on Feb. 9.

The White House replied that judging Biden's cognitive status was out of line and that the important point was to focus on Hur's main conclusion: that the incumbent President did not intentionally take classified documents and did not share them either.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Harris said she was ready to replace Biden if necessary. She reportedly told so to the outlet a week before during a flight on Air Force Two when asked whether she was ready to serve as concerns over Biden’s memory started to grow: “I am ready to serve. There’s no question about that,” Harris stated boldly, insisting that all those around her were ”fully aware of my capacity to lead,” which would contradict her recent 53% disapproval ratings shown by a fresh NBC poll.

After the Hur report, Biden staged an extraordinary press conference to assure that his memory was just fine and to angrily deny any suggestions to the contrary. During the event, however, the president managed to erroneously call his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi the leader of Mexico while discussing the situation in Gaza.