At a campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin, 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Saturday called for amending the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to allow for the removal of the vice president from office.
Following a poor performance in the June 27 debate with President Trump, President Joe Biden on July 21 endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement for the 2024 Democratic nominee. President Trump, who along with many Republicans argues that Democrats have worked hard to cover up Biden's declining cognitive abilities, has declared his support for “amending” the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to allow a vice president like Harris to be subject to impeachment for allegedly concealing Biden's declining mental abilities.
“I support amending the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution to make clear that when the Vice President lies or conspires to cover up the incapacity of the President of the United States, and when done in conjunction with a cover-up of the President of the United States, that is grounds for immediate impeachment and removal from office, because that is exactly what they did,” Trump said.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I support amending the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution to make clear that if the Vice President lies or conspires to cover up the incapacity of the President of the United States, that is grounds for impeachment and removal from office.
*Ahem* Kamala Harris pic.twitter.com/r3cFcA1cYe
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 7, 2024
25th Amendment Constitution It requires a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress to declare the president unfit to serve. If the vote is successful, the vice president will continue to act as president.
During the 2020 election, former Biden-Harris campaign officials and the Democratic National Committee created programs to detect, track and flag “misinformation narratives” on social media platforms, including online discussions about Biden's mental fitness, according to a Zoom video obtained by journalist Matt Orfera. (RELATED: President Trump Announces Elon Musk's Role in Future Administration)
Biden's halting campaign for a second term has been mired in concerns about his age and whether he will be able to continue serving as president, particularly following the release of special counsel Robert Hur's October 2023 report. ReportHoare called Biden a “well-meaning old man with a poor memory” and found him unfit to stand trial. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has denied Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from multiple media outlets to release audio tapes of Biden's interviews.
While many in his party have publicly called for the president to step down, leading Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama, have privately pressured Biden to give up on reelection.
In the weeks leading up to his withdrawal, Biden gave various media interviews in which he argued that he deserves a second term. George Stephanopoulos On July 5, the president said he needed an order from “Almighty God” to withdraw, and 16 days later announced the end of his campaign on social media.
In an interview with CBS News that aired on Aug. 11, his first since withdrawing, Biden said he believes many Democrats in the House and Senate would “hit the nail in the coffin” for their lower-tier districts if he were still his party's nominee.
During a visit to the Democratic National Convention, Biden gave an incoherent response when asked by CNN's Caitlin Collins what he thought about Trump's claim that Democrats had thrown him out of the race.
