Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) called on President Biden’s office to invoke the 25th Amendment to potentially remove him from office following Thursday’s debate performance, which included a series of hesitant responses and raised concerns in both sides of the aisle just months before Election Day.
Tillis, a member of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) leadership team, wrote in a letter to the Senate GOP conference that Thursday’s meeting between Biden and former President Trump makes the “discussion” over the president’s ability to serve “a need.” He added that if Biden does not step aside on his own, the cabinet must resolve the issue on its own.
“If Biden cannot speak coherently, articulate his policies and is unable to act after weeks of preparation, how will he act when America is truly tested by a national security crisis, the kind of historic, high-profile test risk that your predecessors faced? com?” Tillis wrote in the letter, which was sent to members on Friday.
“I believe Biden is a decent man who cares about the country,” he continued. “However, time catches up with everyone and it is clear that their decline is more dire than people imagined and the White House has not been as truthful or transparent as it should have been.”
The North Carolina Republican added: “Biden is not fit to continue serving as leader of the free world. Although he is already on track to lose the elections in November, a lot can still go wrong between now and January 20, 2025.”
The senator argued that Biden should step aside “for the good of the country”.
“If he is unaware of his own inability to continue serving, the Biden cabinet should consider invoking the 25th Amendment, which the cabinet can vote to transfer powers and authorities from the president to the vice president,” he wrote.
In addition to being part of the Republican Party’s leadership team, Tillis is also widely considered one of the most bipartisan members of the Republican conference and has been involved in a number of key negotiations during Biden’s tenure.
Tillis is also the first in the upper chamber to issue such a post-debate call. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters Friday that the cabinet should consider the 25th Amendment option, but didn’t go as far as Tillis.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) added that he would introduce a resolution asking Vice President Harris and the Cabinet to declare Biden unable to perform his presidential duties.
Not surprisingly, Biden’s campaign showed no signs of slowing down on Friday, when he appeared at a rally in North Carolina and noted that he has slowed down in recent years.
“Guys, I don’t walk as easily as I used to. I don’t speak as well as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to,” Biden said at a rally in Raleigh. “But I know what I know. I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this work. I know how to do things. And I know what millions of Americans know: When you get knocked down, you get back up.”
Tillis added to The Hill that the rally did nothing to assuage his fears and that the debate was more indicative of who he believes to be president at this moment, raising fears about how he might deal with an “existential threat in the Situation Room.”
“It was hurtful and I really feel bad for President Biden,” he wrote. “Cognitive and physical decline is a normal part of the aging process for many people.”
“But displaying this decline in front of hundreds of millions of Americans is certainly not normal,” the senator added. “Especially when your day job is serving as the nation’s commander in chief.”
Under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, the vice president and a majority of Cabinet members can vote to declare a commander in chief “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” and hand over the duties of the president to the vice president. .
A dispute between the president over his ability to fulfill the duties of his office would take the issue to Congress. Lawmakers could decide to give the vice president the powers of the presidency through a two-thirds vote of the Senate and House.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
