Will Democrats Use the 25th Amendment on Old Joe After All?
The Democrats already froze befuddled Joe Biden out of the presidential campaign, and one can hardly blame them; the Biden reelection effort looked like it was going to deliver the Democrats a catastrophic loss in November. Imagine things being so bad that Kamala Harris looks to be the better alternative! That's where they were, and invoking that big vaudevillian hook from stage left to yank old Joe out of the picture was, candidly, the smart thing to do.
This is already the most surreal presidential election of our lifetimes. I wrote several times in this space over the last two years that I never believed Biden would be the nominee, and I was proven right. I also honestly believe Trump will pull away from Harris come September and October.
So, what then? How would the Democrats and the Harris campaign react to that?
With panic and trepidation? Hopefully, MacKinnon is right about this. The VP does, after all, have her share of the blame for the mess the economy is in, and unlike most presidential challengers, Donald Trump has a record in the White House to point to, and pre-COVID, things under Trump were pretty darn good. Inflation was lower, and prices on virtually everything were lower; here in the Susitna Valley gasoline prices were around $2 a gallon in late 2020, and now they are nearing $4. Heating oil has seen a similar increase. And don't get me started on groceries.
As MacKinnon points out, Joe Biden is almost certainly not capable of the job; he's probably not the one actually doing the job in any case, making the 25th Amendment question bigger than just a campaign issue.
Is anything off the table in this weird election cycle? I don’t think so. At some point, might it become politically expedient to the Democrats to elevate Harris to the presidency for the remainder of the campaign?
To be sure, there are serious and growing questions about Biden’s perceived cognitive issues and decline. Is he honestly capable of fulfilling his duties? If not, who is now running the country?
Might the Democrats invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office before the election? There is an argument to be made that such a move should at least be considered for the welfare of the country.
But I don't see a lot of advantage in incumbency for Kamala Harris. Were the 25th invoked today, it would be well past the anointment of Harris/Walz at next week's convention before things were finalized; not much, politically, is going to get done while the Dems are having their Chicago shindig. Harris already has a record to run on/be blamed for; she was the junior partner in the worst presidential administration in living memory. So, while anything is possible, I just don't see the Dems initiating 25th Amendment proceedings at this stage in the game.
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Joe Biden, though, is reportedly upset about how he was shoved out of the campaign, and MacKinnon thinks he may just quit. That's an interesting possibility.
What happens if next week at the Democratic convention, Biden simply walks up to the podium, looks into the camera and declares: “I’ve had it. I’m done. I am resigning from my office and going back to Delaware.”
During this off-the-wall bizarre election cycle, I believe anything is not only possible, but likely.
The first layer of this stinker is that it will throw the Democrats for a loop. Joe's resignation places Kamala Harris in the hot seat immediately; there's nowhere she can run or hide to avoid being required to make statements and carry out the duties of the executive immediately, and we can just imagine how well that would go.
The second layer is that Joe Biden has, for decades, been a petty, vindictive man - look at what he did to Clarence Thomas. That makes something like this dramatic gesture more, not less, likely. His ego, what remains of it in the dark recesses of his ossified brain, may argue against him admitting defeat by resigning - but his vindictiveness may yet drive him to do exactly that.
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