If Biden can’t run for office, he can’t stay in office

Democrats successfully staged a soft coup against President Joe Biden after his senility became a political liability. Biden announced he would no longer seek the party’s nomination.

But if Biden can’t run for office because of the severe cognitive decline he demonstrated during the debate, then dropping out of the nomination process isn’t enough. If Biden is too senile to run for president, then he’s too senile to stay in office.

Biden said in a statement that it has been “the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president. And while my intention was to be re-elected, I believe it is in the best interests of my party and the country to step down and focus solely on fulfilling the duties of my president for the remainder of my term.”

Biden will speak “in more detail” about his decision later this week. The president also endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination.

But if Biden is allowed to remain in power for the next six months, the “party of Democracy” has just indicated that 14 million primary voters have engaged in nothing more than a shallow democracy. That is, a democracy in which votes mean nothing because a handful of DC elites have the final say when their power is suddenly on the line.

Democrats successfully kept Biden out of the public eye for four years, smearing legitimate concerns about his cognitive condition as “cheap fakes” and willingly facing jail time in an effort to suppress audio recordings of Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur. Democrats even shepherded Biden through their primary process, denying candidates like Dean Phillips a fair shake after he began questioning Democratic leaders about Biden’s cognitive ability.

They did this because Biden was not a political liability at that moment. Voters only caught glimpses of Biden, and when they did, it was largely for scripted remarks. But the debate changed that. Suddenly, Democrats were forced to account for Biden’s mental acuity. But explaining a man’s inability to formulate a coherent sentence, his repeated “forgetfulness,” or even his ability to walk off a stage unaided was a question that had one answer: Biden is clearly incapable of doing the jobs he set out to do for the next four years.

But if Biden’s failure means he cannot be a successful presidential candidate, then he certainly cannot remain in office.

Democrats have two options. Encourage Biden to also step down as president and let Harris take the role, or Harris must invoke the 25th Amendment.

As I wrote last week, the 25th Amendment requires a president to be invoked if he is “unable” to perform basic presidential duties. Biden “is more likely to make verbal errors and become fatigued” outside the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., White House officials admitted to Axios. Staying up past 4 p.m. is a bare minimum requirement for running the free world. The New York Times reported that Biden told Democratic governors shortly after his debate performance that he gets tired quickly and needs more sleep and less work. Current and former officials who have met privately with Biden in recent months have said the president has become confused and “lethargic,” as described by the Times.

Democrats are playing politics at the expense of our safety and well-being as a nation by allowing Biden to remain president. Biden’s senility is not only a political burden, but a security burden. Democrats have the ability to put people before party. Whether they are willing to do what is right for the good of order is another question.

Brianna Lyman is an election correspondent for The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in international political economy. Her work has appeared on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business, and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2