(Headline USA) Several Republican lawmakers called on President Joe Biden’s Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove him from office after a special counsel report this week confirmed his significant memory lapses, The Hill reported.
Special counsel Robert Hur, who led the Justice Department’s investigation into Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, said in his report this week that he did not recommend charges against Biden because it would be difficult to convince a jury to convict a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Hur went on to say that during his interview with the investigation team, Biden could not remember when he was vice president or when his eldest son, Beau Biden, had died.
Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday, calling the report “alarming” for the country.
Biden “needs to be charged, unless he is not mentally competent to stand trial,” she wrote. “Candidly, Special Counsel’s report makes a reasonable case that he is not.”
Tenney noted that the lapses described in the report were not simply instances of casual forgetfulness but seemed more like serious dementia.
“Being unable to remember what position he held, and when, is exceptionally concerning,” she said. “Being unable to remember when one’s child died—even within a time frame of several years—is perhaps more a more damning reflection of his mental impairment.”
The report’s revelations followed several similar lapses during public speaking arrangements. He appeared to forget the name of the terrorist group Hamas during a press conference and twice confused the names of European leaders he had attended the G7 conference with, substituting the names of long-dead officials for France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Angela Merkel.
Biden “most seemingly lacks the ability to execute his presidential responsibilities,” Tenney wrote.
“So it is incumbent upon you to explore proceedings to remove the President pursuant to the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution,” she continued. “President Biden needs to be charged, or he needs to be removed.”
Several other GOP lawmakers concurred with Tenney’s assessment that the description of Biden’s mental fitness disqualified him from office.
A “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” is “not someone who should be the commander in chief of our armed forces and the defender of American freedoms,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., reasoned.
Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., also said in separate social media posts that this kind of situation was what the 25th Amendment was implemented to address.
Doing so could lead American politics even farther down an already slippery slope.
Democrats openly discussed invoking the amendment against former President Donald Trump toward the end of his term, although there was no indication that Trump was incapable of performing his duties.
Some Republicans have also warned that forcing Biden from office might actually make things worse by delivering the presidency to Vice President Kamala Harris.
It would also give Democrats the pretense they needed to force Biden to quit his re-election campaign, likely swapping him out with a candidate with stronger public approval and electability, such as former first lady Michelle Obama.
