After weeks of speculation that President Biden would step down, an apparent internal coup has stopped his reelection bid. The party that talks about protecting democracy chose to disenfranchise every single Democrat who cast his ballot for the incumbent president and instead anointed Kamala Harris as Biden’s heir apparent. The coup by elites in the Democratic Party is based on dollars and polling, not on any human concern for the elder abuse Biden has suffered at their hands throughout the entirety of his term in office, nor his clear incompetence while serving as president. They finally conceded that Joe Biden has run his course and is no longer of any use to the progressive movement.
Many observers are pointing out the obvious—that the office of the presidency is not a birthright. If one is too mentally degraded to face charges for mishandling classified documents, if one is available for presidential duties only between the hours of 10 am and 4 pm, and if one’s health precludes him from seeking a second term, then one is no longer qualified to possess the nuclear codes. Yet Joe Biden plans to remain in the White House through the final days of January 2025. That’s over six months from now—a full one-eighth of a presidential term.
Whether or not the American Founders envisioned today’s scenario of a cognitively impaired man clinging to the presidency, we can only guess. The 25th Amendment was added to the Constitution to ensure continuity of executive leadership in case of presidential incapacitation. Many among those afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome demanded that it be used against the 45th President. Yet, today, no one seems to have the courage to publicly address the obvious need to use it against Biden. While military and national security elites keep telling us how the globe is constantly on the brink of Armageddon, they simultaneously do not believe it necessary that the military’s top commander be in control of his faculties.
Biden’s undoing has been marked by tripping, shaking hands with air, being unable to walk unaided, a constant stream of stuttered and slurred speech, and long disappearances into the basement of his Delaware mansion. Like Denethor, the steward of Minas Tirith who ruled in place of the true king in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Return of the King, Biden has proven to be an unworthy custodian. However, unlike in Tolkien’s masterpiece, there is no Gandalf coming to the rescue.
At present the president is clearly no longer able to execute the duties of the office. This is not the first time a commander in chief has been incapacitated. But the Roosevelt and Wilson White Houses did not make those presidents’ maladies public knowledge on the world stage.
If Joe Biden is the statesman his supporters proclaim he is, he would resign the presidency. Clinging to power for six months as a debilitated lame duck will create a legitimate national security risk. If the cognitively compromised Joe Biden decided to dial things up with Russia, would the Department of Defense ask questions? If North Korea decided to take advantage of this six-month window to make a show of force against our military in the region, how long would senior commanders be required to wait for permission to respond?
What happens if a senior staffer starts issuing orders to the Secretary of Defense allegedly on behalf of the president? Would a yes-man defense secretary obey this alternate, unelected chain of command? In a word, yes. There is every reason to believe that so long as those orders comport with the left-wing worldview that Lloyd Austin has proven loyal to above all else, they would be followed to the letter. Beyond the self-inflicted problems facing the military, including forced allegiance to Marxist ideologies, toxic leadership, and no accountability for senior officials who engage in lawbreaking, the force has abandoned asking reasonable questions of its superiors.
It is unknown who is really in command of the U.S. military. Is it Joe, Kamala, or whichever White House staffer has the defense secretary on speed dial? Joe Biden’s dogged determination to cling to power may assuage his ego, but it puts the nation at tremendous risk.