… the 25th Amendment is crying out for revision. It clearly doesn’t work in its present form. Despite the amendment and despite Joe Biden’s obvious mental decline and inability to discharge the duties involved in being President of the United States, it hasn’t been invoked and that has allowed a nameless and faceless bunch of unelected aides to run the country.
Why? Because that’s the way the Democrats wanted it.
Let’s look at the relevant elements of the amendment. First we have Section 3:
Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
This part is fairly straightforward and is about voluntary relinquishment on the part of the president. It was never activated by Biden – either because he refused or because those in power wanted him to remain in place as a convenient figurehead.
Then there is Section 4. It’s more complex and involves actions by a president and actions by the Cabinet and Congress:
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
But during the Biden administration, despite the Cabinet and Vice President knowing of his disability, nothing was done. In fact, there was a huge effort by the Cabinet, Harris, and the MSM to cover up the entire situation. It’s really quite extraordinary; politics, in the sense of “what’s good for the Party and bad for Trump?” took precedence over everything else.
It’s an example of the truism that laws are only as good as the people executing them. That’s why, even though I started out this post by saying the 25th Amendment needs improvement, I can’t think of a way to do it that wouldn’t fall prey to the same basic problems. I doubt very much that the amendment’s drafters ever thought of the particular situation we’ve found ourselves in during the Biden administration and particularly in this lamest of lame-duck periods since the 2024 election.
