Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) urged President Biden's cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to potentially remove him from office after Thursday's debate. The debate performance, which included several halting answers, raised concerns on both sides of the aisle just months before Election Day.
According to The Hill, Tillis, a member of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) leadership team, wrote a letter to the Senate GOP conference emphasizing the need to discuss President Biden's ability to serve following Thursday's debate with former President Trump. In the letter, Tillis stated that the debate performance made this "discussion" about Biden's capacity to fulfill his duties "a necessity." He further added that if Biden does not voluntarily step aside, the cabinet should intervene and take matters into their own hands by invoking the 25th Amendment.
According to the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, if the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet determine that the president is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office," they can initiate a process to transfer presidential authority to the vice president temporarily. This determination can be made due to the president's physical or mental incapacity, which impairs his ability to govern effectively.
In the event the president disputes this declaration of incapacity, the matter is referred to Congress for resolution. Congress then has the responsibility to convene and decide whether to uphold the transfer of presidential powers to the vice president. This decision requires a two-thirds vote of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. This constitutional process ensures a mechanism for addressing potential challenges to the president's fitness to fulfill the duties of the office.
Tillis in his letter, sent to members, wrote, "If Biden cannot speak coherently, articulate his policies, and is unfit to perform after weeks of preparation, how will he perform when America is truly tested by a national security crisis, the kind of historic, high-stakes test his predecessors have been confronted with?"
"I believe Biden is a decent man who cares about the country," he continued. "However, time catches up with everyone, and it's clear his decline is more dire than people realized, and the White House has not been as truthful nor transparent as it should have been."
Further, Tillis emphasized the potential risks the country faces with Biden remaining in office until the end of his term. The North Carolina Republican added, "Biden is unfit to continue serving as leader of the free world. While he is already well on track to lose the election in November, a lot can still go wrong between now and January 20, 2025."
The senator argued that Biden should step aside "for the sake of the country," highlighting the importance of having a capable leader during critical times.
"If he is unaware of his own unfitness to continue serving, the Biden cabinet should consider invoking the 25th Amendment," he wrote. This amendment allows the cabinet to vote to transfer the powers and authorities of the President to the Vice President, ensuring the nation's leadership remains effective and stable.
Tillis told The Hill that the rally did nothing to assuage his fears and that the debate was more indicative of who he believes the president is right now, raising concerns about how Biden could handle an "existential threat in the Situation Room."
"It was painful, and I truly feel bad for President Biden," Tillis wrote. "Cognitive and physical decline is a normal part of the aging process for many people."
"But displaying that decline in front of hundreds of millions of Americans is most certainly not normal," the senator added. "Especially when your day job is serving as the nation's commander-in-chief."
