A little over eight weeks ago, President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, despite being the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee and only true primary vote recipient. He was forced out by the party elite, who watched his debate with Donald Trump and saw what most of America already knew: that Biden is senile. Biden was promptly replaced by Kamala Harris, his vice president, who has since solidified Democratic turnout and is running neck-and-neck with Trump.
But something strange has happened since Biden’s ouster: the country went back to ignoring Joe Biden’s senility. Photographs and footage of Biden asleep at the beach in Delaware have filled X feeds for weeks since he dropped out of the race. Just last week, Biden turned over a full Cabinet meeting to his wife, Jill, who sat herself at the head of the table and proceeded to lecture Constitutional appointees on women’s health issues. Within 48 hours, Biden completely forgot the world leader he was supposed to introduce at a Quad summit, snarling at his aides, “Thank you all for being here and now, uhh, who am I introducing next? Who’s next?” The leader, as it turns out, was Narendra Modi, prime minister of the most populous country on earth, India.
So, why isn’t it something of an issue that the most powerful seat on the planet — the presidency of the United States — is being currently held as a sort of emeritus position by a doddering old fool? Why has an office once held by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln been treated as a sort of throwaway gift to a career corrupt politician, like a gold-plated watch or a set of steak knives handed to a past-his-prime salesman at a Motel 6 retirement reception?
The answer is simple: the person tasked with invoking the 25th Amendment so as to protect the presidency is Kamala Harris. And Harris cannot oust Biden. Were she to do so, that would lead to a pitched battle with Biden himself — and Biden is already fighting mad, during his waking hours, at his defenestration at her hands. But more importantly, Harris cannot oust Biden because were she to do so, she would make explicit that which has remained implicit: she is the sitting vice president of the United States and thus responsible for the actions of the Biden-Harris administration