In wake of President Joe Biden's sudden departure from the presidential race, some Republicans on Monday said they're possibly looking to remove Biden from office before his term ends.
At least one congresswoman, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, has talked about removing him from office using the 25th Amendment.
"If Joe Biden does not have the cognitive ability to seek reelection, he does not have the cognitive ability to serve the remainder of his term," Mace said in a social media post on Sunday. "Tomorrow I will introduce a resolution calling on Kamala Harris to invoke the 25th amendment and assume the duties of acting President.
Elmhurst University political science professor Constance Mixon said there is a lot to make sense of now that Biden has withdrawn from the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has called on Biden to resign from office for the remainder of his term.
"He has the nuclear codes, he has major decisions to make every single hour of every single day…" Johnson said. "He does not have the faculties to do that right now."
Others are talking about invoking the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which under Section 4, allows for the vice president to assume the powers and duties of the president should he be unable to do so.
The idea was rejected on Monday by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin.
"I think those suggestions are outrageous…I work with this man, I know him," he said. "The debate performance does not reflect who he is or his capacity to govern as president of the United States."
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It is not the first time in recent years that there has been a suggestion to invoke the 25th Amendment. In the wake of the insurrection on Jan. 6, the call came from then Rep. Adam Kinzinger on Twitter.
"You are not going to get Vice President Harris and a majority of the cabinet to vote to remove Biden as president," Mixon explained. "If the 25th Amendment wasn't invoked after the January 6th insurrection, I highly doubt it will be invoked now."
Some Republican party officials have also threatened to file lawsuits to disrupt a Harris candidacy.
There are also threats on the part of some Republican Party officials to file lawsuits to disrupt a Harris candidacy…
"I think you will see litigation," said Burt Odelson, an election attorney. "I don’t think they will be successful litigation. Similar to the Trump litigation that was filed after the last election. There were 60 lawsuits filed, and none were successful."
Mixon, too, said the threats are a product of the time in which we live.
"We live in a hyper-partisan time, so this doesn’t come as a surprise, but I really see that as more of a distraction," she said. "I don’t see that as going anywhere."
