https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/biden-and-the-25th-amendment/

What if Biden is nominated and then elected president? While that’s happening, we’d hear a lot more about the 25th amendment to the Constitution, the reason being the frail state of Biden’s mind.

Biden is a candidate for a 25th amendment procedure even before he gets nominated, runs and possibly wins.

Any election of Biden as president is an election of other people, and it’s impossible to pin down who they are.



If he dies in office or resigns, the successor is clear. It’s the vice president. The chance of a resignation is substantial because of his condition. He might be persuaded to resign by stronger wills around him. Voting to make Biden president is more than the usual bet that the vice president will assume the top office at some point. That point could be an early point in Biden’s case.

Biden does not have to resign in order to give his powers to the vice president. Resignation is permanent; he has a temporary option. All he is required to do is write an official letter announcing that he’s incapacitated (“unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office”). At that point, the vice president takes over. This letter can be rescinded any time he says (or those who control his mind say), with an important limitation to be explained shortly. That’s where several possible “removal coalitions” come into the process.

The 25th Amendment creates an incentive for the vice president to plot to declare the president disabled. It says that “…the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide…” can remove the president from office by declaring him unable to discharge his duties and powers. These two groups are the two possible removal coalitions.

Congress has the power to designate a committee (a body) to work with the vice president to decide if the president’s mental or physical health is such as to warrant his removal from office. This is one of the two possible removal coalitions. The second removal coalition is the vice president acting with a majority of executive department heads. These removal coalitions have another distinct power that’s described below.

The president’s temporary self-removal holds “until he transmits to them [President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives] a written declaration to the contrary…” The president can re-assume his office by declaring himself fit for office again. Consequently, the country could experience a stop-go presidency in which control of the powers of the office fluctuates among different people.

But wait. There’s a catch. There’s a proviso that can prevent the president from re-assuming his office after giving its powers up. It is that a removal coalition stops him, i.e., “the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”

A removal coalition can intervene and throw the matter into the Congress. This coalition need not have caused his removal in the first place. The president may have stepped down of his own accord.

With this declaration, the vice-president acting with heads of executive departments (or the body appointed by Congress) throws the matter into the Congress, which is authorized to decide if the president stays out or goes back in. To prevent the reinstatement of the disabled (either by himself or by a removal coalition) president requires a super-majority of Congress, a two-thirds vote that he is disabled and may not re-assume his office.

Because of Biden’s state of mind, his selection of vice president assumes more than the usual importance. After all, he could be nominated and he could win. Of equal importance is the group surrounding him that might heavily influence or control his decisions. He need not be removed from office if this group finds it more to their liking to control his pen than to install the vice president as their figurehead.

Another very important person is Jill Biden, who is Joseph Biden’s wife. She will almost surely play a critical role in how Biden would handle his powers and duties if he were elected. If his health failed still more than it has already, she might act to stop his removal and decide to become the power behind the throne.

Biden’s powers of mind, current and future, introduce a great deal of uncertainty into his election as president.

9:27 am on March 7, 2020

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