Following the presidential debate last week, which proved to be a disaster for the Biden campaign, Speaker Mike Johnson delivered a news conference where he addressed calls for the president’s cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment in office and remove him from office. Reports indicate that Democrats have descended into a panic after Biden’s poor performance on the debate stage, drawing his viability as a candidate into question.
Johnson began his remarks by illustrating that the highly anticipated debate has become the talk of the town in D.C. “Everyone here on Capitol Hill is talking about the debate last night, as I know all of you are, and everyone is around the country. It was a stark display, a big contrast between the two candidates for president. I think what everybody has seen now with their own two eyes, what they’ve all witnessed in an almost surprising fashion,” the House speaker said.
The Republican congressman added that, at least to conservatives, Biden’s lackluster performance was not surprising. Throughout his presidency, conservatives have called out numerous gaffes and public slip-ups that suggest Biden’s cognitive abilities are deteriorating. Therefore, Johnson argues that Trump is the qualified candidate who should be elected.
“For some, I’m not sure why it was surprising to them, because we’ve been saying this for a long time, but there was only one man on that stage who was capable and qualified of being elected president in the next term, and his name is Donald J Trump, and the current occupant of the White House, President Biden, showed what he’s really about,” Johnson stated.
During the press conference, Johnson was asked about calls to invoke the 25th Amendment, which addresses presidential succession in cases of disability. According to the amendment, the vice president and the members of the president’s cabinet must declare that the commander-in-chief is unfit to serve. Many voters have already drawn this conclusion throughout Biden’s presidency, where polling from earlier this year indicates that 86% of Americans believe Biden is too old for a second term.
Johnson addressed the question, “There’s a lot of people asking about the 25th invoking the 25th amendment right now, because this is an alarming situation. As I mentioned, our adversaries see the weakness in this White House as we all do. I take no pleasure in saying that. I think this is a very dangerous situation. But you know, unfortunately, it’s not that the house that gets to determine that it’s the cabinet under the Constitution, of course, it’s the cabinet that makes that decision.”
The Louisiana Republican further called on Biden’s cabinet to honestly assess Biden and determine whether he is fit to fulfill the duties of the executive branch. “I would, I would ask the Cabinet members to search their hearts. I think you know, you’ve all been reporting all day long about the panic that is ensued in the Democratic Party. I would be panicking too if I were a Democrat today and that was my nominee. I think they know they have a serious problem,” he added. Watch the press conference below:
Emphasizing that severity of the situation, Johnson noted that if it were up to him, he would be initiating conversations about Biden’s fitness. “If I were in a cabinet, in the Biden administration right now, in a cabinet, I would, I would be having that discussion with my colleagues at the cabinet level. I would, and I think many of them, I think in their heart of hearts, they understand exactly what we do. They see exactly what we do, and we’ll see what action they take. It’s a serious situation,” he said.
Featured image credit: By Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Mike Johnson, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=139920652
"*" indicates required fields