The presidential debate between President Joe Biden and GOP rival and former President Donald Trump was a set-up to make Biden look incapable of handling the presidency.
And after that performance, the New York Post has revealed, in which Biden mumbled and stumbled against a ready, strong, determined Trump, top Democrats gave the frail, ailing president a choice: Drop out of the race, or we will invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution and remove you from office.
Biden had no choice, and on Sunday dropped out of the race. He endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris.
Debate a Set-up
The move to oust Biden as the candidate on November’s ballot was nothing less than a carefully planned coup d’etat.
“Operatives at the very highest levels of the Democratic Party threatened President Biden with forcibly removing him from office unless he stepped down,” the New York Post reported:
The well-orchestrated “palace coup” to stop the faltering president from seeking re-election had been in place for weeks, but stubborn Biden fought it every step of the way, a source close to the Biden family told The Post….
The insider also made clear the anger, paranoia and frustration Biden displayed as the party elite circled around him and piled on the pressure.
Part of the “elaborate” strategy to remove Biden from the race … was allowing him to debate Republican candidate Donald Trump last month on live TV in Atlanta.
As the Post observed, watching the debate was like watching a car crash. Biden’s voice was raspy, and for much of the debate he looked dazed and confused, as if he didn’t know where he was. He stood stiffly, oftentimes not blinking, with an open mouth.
A post-debate CNN flash poll reported that 67 percent of those polled believed Trump won the debate handily.
Democrats panicked. Before the debate was over, smartphones were ringing with calls and pinging with texts. Message: Biden is doomed. His age shows. And that was the whole point of permitting Biden to face Trump on live television.
“That debate was a set-up to convince Democrats that he couldn’t run for president,” the source told the Post.
Thus did “senior” Democrats tell Biden either quit the race or we’ll sack you with the 25th Amendment, the Post reported.
Passed in the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the amendment is a means for the vice president and the president’s Cabinet to declare him unfit.
Biden quit the race in a letter on his own stationery and posted it on X without the knowledge of key staffers.
“Many were also shocked by the letter posted to Biden’s X account itself, as it was typed on his private letterhead rather than White House notepaper and signed electronically,” the source told the Post. “Everyone was totally shocked. It was pretty telling that Jill Biden tweeted a heart emoji and nothing else.”
“While it has been my intention to seek reelection,” Biden wrote, “I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
Picking Harris for veep, he wrote, was “the best decision I’ve made,” he continued:
Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.
Harris is the most powerful diversity, equity, and inclusion hire ever.
Though Biden endorsed Harris, the Post continued, some Democrats are holding out. That includes former President Barack Hussein Obama, who said “We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead.”
The source told the Post that “Democratic delegates will be strongly encouraged to instead back Arizona Sen. and former astronaut Mark Kelly.”
The 25th Amendment
Democrats, however, weren’t the only voices who suggested using the 25th to remove Biden.
Just after the debate, Cornell law professor William Jacboson, who runs the Legal Insurrection blog, asked the right questions, particularly given a report that Biden’s day is about done at 4:00 p.m. Biden himself admitted that he’s ready for bed at about 8:00 p.m. A neurologist recently said Biden certainly has Parkinson’s Disease.
“Democrats need to put aside whether Biden is up to the task of being a successful nominee,” Jacobson wrote. “No honest person who watched last night’s debate can think that Biden mentally is up to the job of being President.”
“Can you imagine an emergency situation where immediate military decisions that only a president can make need to be made in seconds or minutes, and the military having to go to diminished Joe for a decision?” he asked.
Invoking the 25th Amendment isn’t as easy as 1-2-3.
First, the vice president and the Cabinet tell the House speaker and president pro-tem of the Senate, in writing, that the president cannot do his job, after which the vice president becomes acting president.
If the president writes to the speaker and president pro-tem that he can discharge his duties, he resumes power unless the vice president and Cabinet again write to the speaker and president pro-tem, within four days, that the president cannot discharge his duties. Within 21 days, two-thirds of both Houses must vote with or against the president.
