Within hours of the release of a report declining to charge President Joe Biden over handling sensitive documents on the grounds that he was a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” the most conservative members of Congress were already tweeting.
“The Special Counsel’s report exposing that Joe Biden’s mental decline is so severe that he can not stand trial means he is unfit for office,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wrote. “We must demand either the 25th amendment be invoked or impeachment.”
Other members of the House Freedom Caucus, the hard-right group that has often caused internal tension within the GOP and was responsible for the removal of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in December, quickly took up the call. Rep. Mary Miller (R-IN) posted highlighted sections of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report, which included claims that Biden struggled to remember events such as his term as vice president and when exactly his son Beau died.
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“For the safety of our nation, Joe Biden must resign,” Miller wrote. “He could not remember basic facts about his life. He is not competent to remain as Commander-in-Chief & every day that he remains, he puts America at risk.”
Senators Rick Scott (R-FL) and Mike Lee (R-UT) also joined in the clamoring against the president. “It’s time for his cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment,” Scott wrote on X.
The 25th Amendment can be used to remove the president from office due to disability, transferring power to the vice president. But the president may only be removed if he voluntarily gives up power or if the vice president and a majority of presidential cabinet appointees agree that he must be removed.
The amendment therefore cannot be used by the legislative or judicial branches of government, which conservatives have more control over. The chance that a sitting president’s cabinet would remove him in the midst of his own reelection campaign is all but none.
Biden, meanwhile, welcomed the special counsel’s no-charge recommendation with relief. He said he was “pleased to see they reached the conclusion I believed all along they would reach” and considered the matter closed.
