Republican officials are calling on Team Biden to invoke the 25th Amendment following special counsel Robert Hur’s remarkable report that itemized extensive evidence of Joe Biden’s significant cognitive decline. Was the Department of Justice sending the White House a message?
The Republicans said that “if ever there were a time to do so, now would be it,” and insist that if the president “is not competent to stand trial, then he is certainly not competent to lead the free world.”
Hur's report, released Thursday, concludes that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” but stated that prosecuting Biden was unlikely due to Biden’s "poor memory."
“For the safety of our nation, Joe Biden must resign,” Illinois Republican Rep. Mary Miller posted on X. “He could not remember basic facts about his life. He is not competent to remain as Commander-in-Chief & every day that he remains, he puts America at risk. If he won’t resign, the Cabinet must invoke the 25th Amendment.”
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X: “The Special Counsel’s report exposing that Joe Biden’s mental decline is so severe that he can not stand trial means he is unfit for office. We must demand either the 25th amendment be invoked or impeachment.”
In January of 2021, following the J6 protest at the U.S. Capitol, it was Democrats who were calling on then-President Donald Trump's Cabinet to invoke the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Twenty-fifth-Amendment">25th Amendment</a>.
Trump said on Jan. 12, 2021: “Free speech is under assault like never before. The 25th Amendment is of zero risk to me, but will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden administration. As the expression goes, be careful what you wish for.”
A major part of Hur’s report on Thursday was explaining why it wasn’t worth the effort to charge and try Biden for “willful” violation of classified documents. Hur said a jury would be sympathetic to an old man losing his memory.
References Hur made to Biden’s declining memory:
• “Mr. Biden’s memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017, and in his interview with our office in 2023.”
• “We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden 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.”
• “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 willfullness.”
• “Mr. Biden’s memory also appeared to have significant limitations — both at the time he spoke to Zwonitzer in 2017, as evidenced by their recorded conversations, and today, as evidenced by his recorded interview with our office. Mr. Biden’s recorded conversations with Zwonitzer from 2017 are often painfully slow, with Mr. Biden struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries.”
• “In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse. He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘If it was 2013 — when did I stop being vice president?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘In 2009, am I still vice president?’).”
• “He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died.”
• “His memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with Gen. Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally who Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.”
• “In a case where the government must prove that Mr. Biden knew he had possession of the classified Afghanistan documents, knowing he was violating the law, we expect that at trial, his attorneys would emphasize these limitations in his recall.”
• “Mr. Biden’s apparent lapses and failures in February and April 2017 will likely appear consistent with the diminished faculties and faulty memory he showed in Zwonitzer’s interview recordings and in our interview of him.”
• “The special counsel asked Mr. Biden about the Jan. 29, 2015 breakfast with senators and the handwritten notes in the EYES ONLY envelope during Mr. Biden’s interview. Mr. Biden had no recollection of the breakfast or the handwritten notes.”
Tonight, on my radio show, I will start explaining that the special counsel report should trigger the 25th amendment and removeal of Biden. Yes, yes, I know who would become president, but it would be no different and she's an electoral disaster as well. But the issue is…
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) February 8, 2024
Truly astonishing.
The US Department of Justice formally laying out evidence that the sitting President of the United States IS NOT COMPETENT TO STAND TRIAL. He cannot remember when he was Vice President, but this man has the nuclear codes…. pic.twitter.com/GpJ6H9jtfw — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 8, 2024
If ever there were a time to invoke
the 25th Amendment, wouldn’t that time be now? https://t.co/xJYrdW4o7r — Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) February 8, 2024
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