Calls to invoke the 25th Amendment are echoing on social media following a report by Special Counsel Robert Hur who said President Joe Biden has severe cognitive disabilities.
Hur declined to pursue criminal charges against Biden despite describing him as having willfully possessed classified information covering important national security matters, according to his report. Hur said Biden, if forced to sit trial, “would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Hur also said it would be “difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him—by then a former president well into his eighties—of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.” (RELATED: Gregg Jarrett Explains Why Biden’s Classified Docs Case Doesn’t Have Defense Under Federal Records Act)
Hur then described instances during the interview process in which Biden allegedly forgot when he was vice president and the year his late son Beau Biden passed away. Biden also allegedly forgot significant details from the debate over the 2009 Afghanistan surge, which he had opposed.
Fox News contributor and editor at The Spectator Ben Domenech tweeted the report “practically screams” invoking the 25th amendment.
“Having read the special counsel report, it practically screams : this is what the 25th amendment is for.”
Having read the special counsel report, it practically screams: this is what the 25th amendment is for.
— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) February 8, 2024
New York Post columnist John Podhoretz said the amendment was designed specifically for such an instance as this.
“This is literally what the 25th Amendment was designed for.”
This is literally what the 25th Amendment was designed for.
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) February 8, 2024
Constitutional expert Mark Levin said “the special counsel presents evidence that Biden should be removed under the 25th amendment.”
The 25th Amendment was ratified in 1967, according to the American Constitution Society, and outlined specific procedures for the succession of a president if he, among other things, was “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
The 25th Amendment is ambiguous and uses the phrase “inability” to describe an event in which the president can be removed from office. Section 4 of the 25th Amendment stipulates the procedure required to remove a president if they are “unable to discharge the powers and duties” of the office.