Today I ran across yet another opinion piece in which one journalist was castigating his fellows for having failed to notice and/or reveal that then-President Biden was in failing mental health and growing incompetence long before the disastrous Biden v. Trump debate. While this type of remonstrance can be amusing, it prompts me to ask the much more cogent question: During President Biden’s decline and belatedly revealed failure, who was running the country? Who was it that was making policy decisions? Who was it who did such things as order forgiveness of student debt? Who had control of the autopen? Who was pulling the strings?
In retrospect, it seems obvious that every official in the White House and every member of the congressional leadership of both parties must have been aware of what was happening, and each for their own reasons consciously chose to say nothing and do nothing to upset the status quo. It would be interesting to hear each of them give an honest explanation for their own failure to act.
Regardless of all this, the episode has revealed an important truth. Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States purports to safeguard the nation by providing a means for removal of a disabled president, but contains no requirement for anyone to do so if it is in their own interest (singly or collectively) to do otherwise.
Thomas W. Brown
Murray, Utah