West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is calling on Vice President Kamala Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment to replace President Joe Biden amid growing concerns over his mental health.
“I am writing to urge you to invoke your powers under Section 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment and declare that President Biden is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” Mr. Morrisey wrote.
The letter comes amid the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on the investigation into President Biden’s handling of classified documents. The report described President Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” The report also referred to the president’s mental fitness as “hazy,” “significantly limited,” and showed signs of “diminished faculties and faulty memory.”
“For too long, Americans have had to stand by and watch as their president has experienced a profound cognitive decline,” Mr. Morrisey wrote. “Over the last few months alone, President Biden has mixed up world leaders and political figures, strained to address basic issues in public speeches, and wandered out of events in a disoriented state.”
The 25th Amendment lays out the constitutional process for removing a president who has been deemed unable to discharge the responsibilities of his office.
The amendment can be invoked by the vice president and a majority of the president’s cabinet, “or of such other body as Congress may by law provide,” by transmitting their written declaration of the president’s incapacity to the president pro tempore of the Senate and the speaker of the House. At that point, the vice president would assume the office of acting president.
In the letter, Mr. Morrisey noted that the special counsel’s report “paints a clear picture of a president who is not up for the job” and “is one more piece of evidence on a growing pile that shows that America is facing a genuine crisis of leadership.”
“We need a president who is mentally fit,” Mr. Morrisey said. “The demands placed on a president are intense, requiring continual cognitive clarity. He is often called on to make life-and-death decisions with little time. And in the wrong hands, the powers of the office could be dangerously abused.”
Harris ‘Ready to Serve’
Following the report, Vice President Harris rebuked the report’s conclusion, calling it “gratuitous, inaccurate, and inappropriate” and “politically motivated.”More Calls
The letter from the West Virginia attorney general comes after several lawmakers called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to invoke the 25th Amendment following the special counsel’s report.Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) also issued a letter to Mr. Garland calling for President Biden’s removal from office via the 25th Amendment. In the letter, she expressed “grave concerns” regarding the president’s mental fitness.
“Real Time” host Bill Maher said on Feb. 9 that Democrats still have time to replace President Biden at the Democratic National Convention this summer, Fox News reported.
