The presidential debate between President Joe Biden and his Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, was designed to make Biden seem incompetent to handle the office of president.
And after Biden mumbled and stumbled against a prepared, strong and determined Trump, as the New York Post revealed, Democratic leaders gave the frail and ailing president a choice: either withdraw from the race or invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.
Biden had no choice but to drop out of the race on Sunday, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.
Discuss the setup
The effort to remove Biden as a candidate in the November presidential election was tantamount to a meticulously planned coup.
“Democratic Party activists at the highest levels have threatened to forcibly remove President Biden from office if he does not resign,” the New York Post reported.
A meticulously orchestrated “palace coup” had been underway for weeks to thwart the president's burgeoning reelection bid, but the stubborn Biden resisted it every step of the way, sources close to the Biden family told The Washington Post…
Insiders also laid bare the anger, paranoia and frustration Biden displayed as party elites surrounded and pressured him.
Part of the “elaborate” strategy to remove Biden from the race is to allow him to debate Republican candidate Donald Trump in a live televised debate in Atlanta last month.
As The Washington Post noted, watching the debate was like watching a car crash. Biden's voice was raspy and he seemed dazed and confused throughout the debate, as if he didn't know where he was. He stood stiff, unblinking and often with his mouth open.
A CNN poll released after the debate reported that 67% of respondents thought Trump won the debate by a landslide.
Democrats panicked. Before the debate was over, smartphones were buzzing with calls and text messages. The message was: Biden is hopeless. His age tells you that. And that was the main purpose of allowing Biden to face Trump on live television.
“The debate was a ploy to convince Democrats that he can't run for president,” a source told The Post.
According to the Washington Post, “senior” Democrats have told Biden to drop out of the race or face removal from office under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.
The amendment was passed in the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and provides a means for the vice president and the presidential cabinet to declare a president unfit for office.
Biden withdrew from the race in a letter written on his own stationery and posted on X without informing key staff.
“The letter itself, posted to Biden's X account, also shocked many because it was typed on Biden's personal letterhead and digitally signed, not White House stationery,” a source told The Post. “Everyone was totally shocked. It was pretty shocking that Jill Biden tweeted just a heart emoji.”
“While I intended to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and our country for me to step down and focus on fulfilling the duties of my presidency for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote.
He wrote that choosing Harris as his vice president was “the best decision I've ever made,” adding:
Today, I want to fully endorse and support Kamala to be our party's nominee this year. Democrats, now is the time to unite and defeat Trump. Let's do it together.
Harris has hired the strongest diversity, equity and inclusion staffing we have ever had.
While Biden endorsed Harris, some Democrats have reservations, the Washington Post continued, including former President Barack Hussein Obama, who said, “We're navigating uncharted territory ahead.”
“Democratic delegates will be strongly encouraged to support Arizona senator and former astronaut Mark Kelly instead,” a source told The Post.
25th Amendment
But Democrats weren't the only ones proposing to remove Biden on the 25th.
Shortly after the debate, Cornell law professor William Jake Boson, who runs the blog Legal Insurrection, asked a pertinent question in light of reports that Biden's day ends at 4 p.m. Biden himself acknowledges that he gets ready for bed around 8 p.m. A neurologist recently said he's certain Biden has Parkinson's disease.
“Democrats need to set aside the question of whether Biden will be a successful nominee,” Jacobson wrote. “No honest person who watched last night's debate believes Biden is mentally capable of being president.”
“Can you imagine an emergency situation in which military decisions that only a president can make would need to be made in seconds or minutes, and the military would have to look to a weakened president to make those decisions?” he asked.
Applying the 25th Amendment is not as simple as 1, 2, 3.
First, the Vice President and the Cabinet must notify the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate in writing that the President is unable to perform his duties, after which the Vice President will become Acting President.
If the President sends a letter to the Speaker and the President pro tempore that he is able to act, the President regains power unless the Vice President and the Cabinet send another letter to the Speaker and the President pro tempore within four days that the President is unable to act. Within 21 days, two-thirds of both Houses of Congress must vote for or against the President.
