According to sources, GOP Senator Eric Schmitt is urging all members of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet, including Vice President Kamala Harris, to invoke the 25th Amendment against the president.
Schmitt sent letters to each member of the Cabinet Monday afternoon, only a day after the president halted his campaign for reelection amid pressure from within his party about his fitness to serve another term and his age.
Instead, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to serve as the Democratic nominee in his place.
Although he has dropped out of the race, the White House has maintained the president will finish out his first term, which concludes January 20, 2025.
However, the GOP, including his Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, is questioning his ability to serve for the rest of his term.
On Monday, Schmitt sent letters to the Cabinet members, including VP Harris, urging them to invoke the 25th Amendment. While several have suggested invoking the 25th Amendment, Senator Schmitt is the first to take action officially.
“Joe Biden has decided he isn’t capable of being a candidate; in so doing, his admission also means he cannot serve as President,” said Schmitt. “Therefore, it is in the best immediate interest of the safety of the United States for Joe Biden to resign from office or face removal under the 25th Amendment.”
Schmitt said that under the Biden-Harris Administration, Americans have continued to fight “to stay afloat financially, have seen America’s standing on the world stage diminished, and have been pushed aside in favor of illegal aliens flooding across our southern border.”
“If Joe Biden is capable of running for office, he is incapable of serving in office,” continued Schmitt. “It is that simple.”
“If President Biden is willing to admit he is unable to continue to stand as the Democratic Party nominee for President after the primary process due to his health, he cannot continue to serve as President until January 20, 2025.”
“As the Democrats scramble to find a new nominee, it is with sober awareness of the gravity of my request that I ask that you, as principal officer of the executive department, discharge your constitutional duty under the 25th Amendment, working with Vice President Harris and rest of the Cabinet to submit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a written declaration of the truth we now all see — President Biden is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” continued Schmitt. “If President Biden is unwilling to resign, for the sake of our great nation, you must do your duty to relieve him of his constitutional powers and duties.”
The 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states, “whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”
Senator Schmitt said VP Harris hasn’t displayed an inability to discharge duties of the presidency
Senator Schmitt wrote to Cabinet members that “while Vice President Harris may have deficiencies to effectively serve as the Acting President in any way that benefits the American people, she has not displayed a medical, incurable inability to discharge the powers and duties of the Presidency, unlike President Biden.”
“The same Democrat elites that forced President Biden’s hand over the past several weeks did so long after the American people could see his inability to discharge his powers and duties,” wrote Schmitt.
“He should have never stood for reelection through the primaries. Rather than allow the voice of the people to speak through the democratic process of primary elections, the Democratic party insiders and megadonors will now have the opportunity to pick a new candidate in a crony-filled backroom of their convention,” wrote Schmitt. “In 2024, the Democratic Party is anything but democratic.”
Schmitt urged secretaries in the Cabinet to take action “for the sake of our nation.”
“We cannot wait until January 20, 2025, for a mentally capable President,” wrote Schmitt. “The stakes are too important given the domestic and foreign challenges the United States is currently facing.”
Schmitt stated Americans “cannot afford a part-time President.”
“I urge you to fulfill your constitutional duty and relieve President Biden of his constitutional powers and duties,” wrote Schmitt. “If he is medically unable to be a candidate for Presidency (after he won the primary), then he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the Presidency today.”