Joe Biden’s awkward performance in the presidential debate has sparked nationwide talk of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.
The president alarmed Democrats and Republicans alike after he frequently lost track during the televised event, digressing mid-sentence and mixing up topics.
It has only increased widespread concerns about his cognitive decline and led to calls for the 25th Amendment to be successfully enforced for the first time in American history.
Section 4 of the amendment allows for the removal of a president deemed incapacitated by any form of disease, injury, or mental impairment.
DailyMail.com explains here what the amendment entails and how likely it is that Biden will be removed from the White House.
Joe Biden’s awkward performance during the presidential debate has sparked nationwide discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office
Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding that he “initiate proceedings” to impeach President Joe Biden under the 25th Amendment after a shocking report revealed Biden’s mental health issues
Presidents can be removed by impeachment or by the 25th Amendment. The impeachment process is initiated when the president is accused of wrongdoing and brought to trial.
However, the 25th Amendment, which governs presidential succession, provides more flexibility.
It is divided into four sections. The first means that the vice president takes over the White House if the president dies, resigns or is impeached.
Section 2 provides that if the vice president dies, resigns—or is removed from office—both the House of Representatives and the Senate must confirm a new vice president.
Article 3 makes it clear that a President may temporarily delegate his powers to the Vice President, and then reclaim them later when he or she is able to serve again.
This is usually invoked when a president is under the influence of a surgical anesthetic for a short period of time.
But Section 4 is the most controversial part of the amendment: It passes when the vice president and most of Congress agree that the president cannot do his job. The vice president then becomes acting president.
The president can regain power, but only if Congress disagrees with the vice president and a majority.
But this can only be ratified if the President is deemed unable to do his or her job if he or she is mentally or physically incapacitated.
This portion of the amendment has never been used to permanently remove a president from office, but Reagan came close.
Reagan’s aides were concerned about his mental health, describing him as inattentive, distracted, lazy and unable to perform his duties.
However, his new chief of staff found him capable and Section 4 was not used, although he was later diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks with US President Joe Biden during the first presidential debate of the 2024 elections at the CNN studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27, 2024
What did the polls say after the first 2024 presidential debate?
An exclusive poll for DailyMail.com found that a clear majority of independent voters believe President Joe Biden should no longer be the Democratic nominee after a car-crash debate with Donald Trump. Some 62 percent said he should be dumped from the ticket.
JL Partners surveyed 805 independent voters immediately after the 90-minute clash and found that 68 percent said the former president had prevailed over his successor in the White House.
What did people say about Biden’s performance during the debate?
Democratic backers called the presidential debate “the worst performance in history.”
One donor told POLITICO that his performance was “so bad that no one will pay attention to Trump’s lies,” and that “Biden should drop out.” No doubt about it.’
A senior Democratic strategist said: “Biden is about to face a crescendo of calls to step aside. Parties are there to win – this man on stage with Trump cannot win,” according to a scathing interview with the New York Times.
And former Republican campaign strategist and now Democrat Steve Schmidt said, “Biden lost the country tonight and he’s not going to get it back. If Trump is a threat and democracy is at stake, Biden needs to step aside.”
In the aftermath of the debate, Biden campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said early this morning: “Of course he’s not going to back out.”
Can Joe Biden be replaced? Who could replace him?
While it is possible to replace Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, this is complicated by the fact that he already has enough delegates to have won the nomination.
He has 3,894 pledged delegates and only 1,976 are needed to be nominated.
Under party rules, delegates assigned to a candidate based on their primary election win are tied to their candidate on the first ballot at the convention. And that first vote usually ends in a nominee.
Legally speaking, Biden’s delegates must therefore vote for him.
However, should Biden withdraw, the nomination would be decided at the Democratic National Convention in August.
His delegates would become ‘non-aligned’ and could vote for any candidate they wanted.
Vice President Kamala Harris would not automatically be the nominee, nor would she own Biden’s delegates, because she was not in the primary. Biden was.
But given her status as his running mate, she would likely be the favorite.
Democrats, however, could choose any candidate, including governors like Gavin Newsom of California, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania.
Or any of the people who ran for office in 2020: Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey.
If Biden were to resign, the party would have to hold a series of votes among delegates until one person had the 1,976 nominee.
This would likely result in a massive floor fight for votes that would take place over several days and dominate news coverage.