Whenever 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, transmit 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, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless 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. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
Section Four, Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution (emphasis added)
Biden resigns or he may well be shoved out by the Democrats wielding the 25th Amendment threat, or as a result of the metastasizing Hunter Biden story it becomes obvious that he is an unindicted co-conspirator. Even “Heels up” Harris will seem like the preferable option. Democrats are not sentimental about cutting their losses when they have to. The moral of this story is that stealing an election to put in the Presidency a man suffering from dementia is a very bad idea. Pass the popcorn.
Like the regret the Republicans had in passing term limits on the presidency and thus preventing an Eisenhower third term, the dems are now faced with a 25th Amendment challenge when the Wilson situation would have served them better with Biden. Since we don’t do palace coups in this country, we are probably destined for three years of dangerous incompetence regardless of who occupies the first chair in the White House.
Andrea Widburg at The American Thinker proposes that Obama will be the next President. Interesting theory and her suggested method seems marginally plausible. Short version: they force Kamala to resign, Biden appoints Obama VP, then Biden resigns or is forced out under the 25th Amendment. No election required so Obama is allegedly eligible to become POTUS again via this route.
Interesting. Popcorn is heating.
Forcing Harris to resign would be tricky, unless she can be offered something she wants more than being Veep or President. The Democrats are up against a tight clock in regard to appointing a Veep since that requires a majority vote in both chambers.
Like the regret the Republicans had in passing term limits on the presidency and thus preventing an Eisenhower third term,
Which Republicans regretted this? And even if they had, why would Eisenhower have accommodated them? He was uninterested in wide swaths of public policy and he had a heart attack and a stroke while he was in office. He died eight years after leaving office of congestive heart failure, an ailment which you commonly suffer for years before it takes you. He did not make any speeches for Richard Nixon in 1968, his grandson’s plans to marry into the Nixon family notwithstanding, because he was too ill. At one point, Nixon’s staff persuaded him to make a commercial for RN. He was in bed in pajamas and they hung a microphone around his neck and taped his remarks. Not sure the ad was ever used.
… And if Harris resigns the Senate tie-breaker is gone.
… And if Harris resigns the Senate tie-breaker is gone.
Push comes to shove they get what they want from some combination of Collins, Murkowski, and Romney. Murkowski is the only one of the three who isn’t in Congress years past an ordinary person’s retirement age and Murkowski despises the Republican base thoroughly and figures she can pull off a win with a write-in campaign if she needs to.
Art Deco: I meant beginning with Eisenhower as an example. Sorry for my shorthand comment. Frank: I believe the operative word is “serve” which would knock out this route but Michelle could go this route.
It does make you wonder…
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/398537.php
One other thing. If you don’t have the co-operation of the clique running Biden (Jill, Klain), they’ll have Sundown Joe sign a paper scotching the process, which he can do. Then it will be pitched to Congress, who will require a 2/3 majority to place him on a leave of absence.
It’s characteristic of our political class that they wait nearly 50 years to set up a procedure to depose a disabled President, then prescribe a procedure which would never have worked in the precipitating situation back in 1919.
And of course there’s the presidential succession law, composed by people in 1947 who value status over function. The order of succession runs through the Speaker of the House and then the President pro tem of the Senate. You’d have to scrounge among the Speakers we’ve had over the last four generations to find one who had some history as an executive. (There was that one who was a newspaper editor in his youth). As for the President pro tem of the Senate, they’re usually ancient. Nonagenarians have occupied that position and few if any have been under 70 in the last century. The current occupant is 81.