During a press conference this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) expressed his belief that Vice President Kamala Harris and other members of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet should consider invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Biden from office, citing concerns over his apparent cognitive decline.
“If I were in the Biden Cabinet … would I be mulling over the 25th Amendment, applying the Fourth Clause of the 25th Amendment, which has never before been employed in that way?” he asked at the press conference.
“And I answered honestly, ‘Yes,’ I would,” he said. “In good conscience, if I was in the Biden Cabinet, I would be wrestling with that question because I would know what we all know now, that Joe Biden is not up to the task and it’s a dangerous situation for the reasons we articulated earlier.”
“So, there’s a time to every purpose under Heaven; desperate times call for desperate measures; I think the 25th Amendment is appropriate here,” he continued. “We all know that the House doesn’t have the authority to do that; it’s the vice president of the United States who has to initiate that process. We don’t have any involvement unless there’s a disagreement between the president and what the vice president and the Cabinet decide.”
Johnson said he believes most Americans would find it appropriate to use the 25th Amendment in this situation if they understood how it worked. “I’m under no illusion that they’re going to do that,” he concluded. “But if I were in the Cabinet and … any of us were in the Cabinet, we would have to honestly say that that’s something we’d have to wrestle with.”
WATCH:
Speaker Mike Johnson says the 25th Amendment is appropriate for Biden. pic.twitter.com/5ca1OJwU1a
— Robert Gouveia Esq. (@RobGouveiaEsq) July 9, 2024