Invoking the 25th Amendment has a huge downside by may be
the only chance to avoid a historic beating at the polls in 2022
Secretary of State Tony Blinkin
Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellin
Attorney General Merrick Garland
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin
Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh
Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra
Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas
Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona
Secretary of Veteran Affairs Denis McDonough
Pursuant to the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, when Vice President Harris and eight of the individuals identified above decide that Joe Biden is no longer capable of discharging the powers and duties of his office, Joe Biden will cease to be President.
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.
The disastrous withdrawal of Afghanistan is only one part of the question about whether Joe Biden is fit to be President. A bigger problem for the Democrat Party may be the public perception — both home and abroad — of the aftermath of that collapse that began on Sunday. The enormity of the miscalculation with respect to how quickly the Taliban would take over Afghanistan may have been exceeded by the stunning lack of any response from Joe Biden and his administration.
Joe Biden could not be bothered to make a public appearance on Sunday.
Joe Biden could not make a public appearance on Sunday.
One of those statements is true.
Other than sending Secretary of State Blinkin onto the Sunday morning talk shows, the Administration otherwise hung out a “Gone Fishin” sign while diplomats of the United States and other countries were airlifted to safety.
It was only as images of chaos at Kabul Airport on Monday filled the airwaves and social media that Biden found the need to go before the cameras. But if all he is able to do at this point is read words off a teleprompter in a room closed off to the press, the problem will only be magnified. The Biden Presidency SHOULD depend on his ability to answer questions from the press at this difficult moment in time.
But that might not even be enough to save him from the Machiavellian impulses of others in the Democrat Party. The current trajectory of the Biden Administration and the Democrat Party based on the past seven months is towards an electoral disaster in November 2022. Other than attempts to pass legislation continuing to spend money at a pace never before contemplated, the Administration has made no substantial progress on the political wishlist of the Party’s activist wing.
The Party establishment turned to Biden as the one person who, with his Obama Administration credibility, could stave off the assault of the socialist wing of the party led by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Biden proved capable of doing that with ballot-box stuffing primary wins in South Carolina and across the south to once again prevent Bernie Sanders from winning the Democrat party nomination.
But a Biden win brought a return to power of many Clinton-era pols, especially inside the White House staff led by Chief of Staff Ron Klain. Klain’s time with Biden goes back to the early 1990s when he was hired onto the Senate Judiciary Staff when Joe Biden was Chairman of the Committee. Klain moved to the White House after Bill Clinton was elected, and later became Al Gore’s Chief of Staff. When Joe Biden became Vice President, Klain was Biden’s first Chief of Staff, departing after two years.
When Jill Biden was the “Second Lady”, her Chief of Staff was Cathy Russell. Russell now serves as Director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. Her office is responsible for vetting and approving each of the Administration’s political appointees, including those requiring Senate confirmation. She served in several positions during the Clinton Administration.
Russell’s brother-in-law is Mike Donilon, a Senior Advisor and Counselor to President Biden.
Russell is married to Thomas E. Donilon, the former National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama. Thomas Donilon is currently a senior official with the massive financial investment firm Blackrock.
These are the people running the Biden Administration behind the scenes. These are the members of the Democrat Party Establishment who engineered Joe Biden’s path to the office. These are the individuals who stand in the way of the takeover of the party by the next generation’s socialist wing. These are the people who Kamala Harris would likely sweep aside and replace if she were to take power from Joe Biden.
Are there eight names among those listed above who would join her? There is no process for such an event. It takes only a letter sent to House and Senate with their signatures. No votes or validations are necessary. No White House physician’s statement attesting to what all can see for themselves is required.
A notable feature of Joe Biden’s Cabinet is the extent to which his selections represented a “checking off the boxes” necessary to satisfy the identity politics that is Democrat Party orthodoxy. There are few Biden “loyalists” among the picks beyond Secretary of State Blinkin. But are there eight among them who, if pushed by Congress, would put Harris into office?
The most obvious place to start is with former members of Congress who would likely be most receptive to a plea from their former colleagues to reset the White House as part of an attempt to correct the trajectory of the party ahead of next year’s midterms.
Those would include Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Marcia Fudge and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, both minority women who could also be appealed to on the grounds that they would make Harris the first “woman of color” to be President.
Next could be two Cabinet Secretaries from California — DHS Secretary Mayorkas and HHS Secretary Becerra. Harris would be the first Democrat President from California.
Beyond those four, the handicapping gets trickier. There does seem to be a possible firewall against a “Palace Coup” in the form of Blinkin, Treasury Sec. Yellin, Ag. Sec. Vilsack, Energy Sec. Granholm, Labor Sec. Walsh, and Veteran Affairs Sec. McDonough. All have significant ties to the DNC establishment.
That leaves AG Garland, Defense Secretary Austin, Commerce Sec. Raimondo, Education Sec. Cardona, and Transportation Sec. Buttigieg as the remaining five Cabinet Members.
Biden is now 15 minutes late in delivering his remarks which were set earlier to take place at 3:45 ET.
Tick tock.
Post-Script:
Prior to the speech, it was circulated that there would be limited press in the East Room where the speech would be delivered and that Biden would call on only a few hand-picked reporters with pre-screened questions.
At the conclusion of the speech he exited the room and answered no questions.
One of four things is true:
The report about him taking questions was erroneous.
The reporters refused to go along
The questions submitted were not acceptable to the WH.
The “practice session” answering questions before the speech went so badly a decision was made to not take any questions.
The fact that he began more than 15 minutes later than the announced time suggests to me that it was 3 or 4.
Finally, from an “appearance” standpoint this was one of his better efforts to read someone else’s words off the teleprompter. He should have quit after about 8 minutes. Cover the big points, let the surrogates at State and Defense answer questions about the details.
By not taking any questions he cratered any “positive” spin that might have otherwise by possible.