Mounting concerns about President Joe Biden’s mental acumen has caused numerous lawmakers to call for his removal from office.
Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-Tenn., demanded the White House cabinet use the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office.
The White House insists the elderly 81-year-old Biden, who is seeking a second 4-year term in the 2024 election, is up to the job.
But Tenney cited Special Counsel Robert Hur’s classified documents probe, released Thursday, as proof Biden that lacks mental capacity for governing.
Hur’s report “recited numerous instances in which President Biden exhibited dramatically compromised mental faculties and concluded that a jury would be likely to perceive President Biden as a sympathetic and forgetful old man,” Tenney said.
This amounts to “selective prosecution” relative to former President Donald Trump’s classified documents trial that is “morally, ethically, and legally prohibited,” Tenney asserted.
She pleaded with Cabinet officials to “explore proceedings to remove the President pursuant to the 25th Amendment.”
In Tenney’s words: “President Biden needs to be charged, or he needs to be removed. There is no middle ground.”
Other Republican leaders called for Biden to be removed from office.
“If ever there were a time to invoke the 25th Amendment, wouldn’t that time be now?” Sen. Mike Lee, R-U.T., said.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., posted about the 25th Amendment intervention on social media –
Who will be the first patriotic Democrat in Congress to state the obvious and – for the good of the country – invoke the 25th Amendment
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) February 9, 2024
The White House rebuffed this call for ousting Biden over his reported mental decline.
At a rare press conference after the special counsel report was released, Biden was questioned on his memory. The president maintained that his “memory is fine” and said he has repeatedly proved his competence while in office.
However, documented mental lapses have fueled the growing 25th Amendment push.
The special counsel report said Biden repeatedly struggled when interviewed to recall basics like his vice presidential tenure. The report also stated Biden was confused on when son Beau passed away, failing to identify the source mid-sentence.
“In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse,” Hur’s report stated. “He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 — when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’).”
“He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him,” the reported read.
“Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama,” Hur stated.
“In a case where the government must prove that Mr. Biden knew he had possession of the classified Afghanistan documents after the vice presidency and chose to keep those documents, knowing he was violating the law, we expect that at trial, his attorneys would emphasize these limitations in his recall,” the report said.
Biden later denied memory lapses at his press conference: “I don’t need anyone to remind me when [Beau] passed away.”
Tenney shot back: “Being unable to remember what position he held, and when, is exceptionally concerning. 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 Horn editorial team