Joe Biden's resistance to dropping out of the race may be out of confidence or stubbornness, but the calls for him to step aside are growing. I think the Democrats' Plan B may be invoking the 25th Amendment.
No cabinet has invoked the 25th Amendment in its history, but if a majority of the Cabinet and the vice president agree that Biden can't continue the campaign (and, by extension, is unable to carry on as president), they might just have to invoke it.
Last week, I would have said this was never going to happen. Now I'm thinking it might.
On a recent episode of his podcast, MSNBC's Chuck Todd made the stunning admission that two years ago, a top cabinet official told him that Biden was not in condition to run again.
"I'm not gonna out the cabinet secretary. But I had a cabinet secretary two years ago, Okay? Two years ago, out of the blue ask me, 'Do you really think he's gonna...he can't run again, like this?'" Todd admitted. "And I said, 'Well you have more interaction with him than I do,' and they said, 'I don't have a lot of interaction with him. This is a pretty senior cabinet secretary, and this was two years ago. This is one of those, classic open secrets, a nonversation, right? It's the story everyone knows, and everybody was afraid to talk about."
In the same episode Chuck Todd says a cabinet official TWO YEARS AGO told him Biden “can’t run again LIKE THIS”
— Corey Inganamort (@TheBirdWords) July 10, 2024
Chuck knew. https://t.co/09lJk7F8u5 pic.twitter.com/zQdiJj4cjM
This jibes with a separate CNN report that Biden's Cabinet meetings are scripted affairs.
Back in Washington, there have been clear signs throughout his term of Biden being increasingly stage-managed, with lists of talking points, names of questioners and drawings of where he should walk presented to him by aides. Ahead of closed-door Cabinet meetings that Biden attends, it is customary for Cabinet officials to submit questions and key talking points that they plan to present in front of Biden ahead of time to White House aides, two sources with direct knowledge told CNN.
“The entire display is kind of an act,” one of those sources told CNN. “They would come and say, ‘Hey, the president is going to call on you about 25 minutes in, and ask this question. What are the bullet points you’ll respond with?’”
The second source, who echoed that same description, said when Biden attends Cabinet meetings, they are “not free-wheeling, and pretty well-orchestrated.” And the meetings themselves are infrequent, with one Cabinet secretary telling CNN they are uncertain of Biden’s condition because they so rarely see him.
In fact, the last full Cabinet meeting took place on October 2, 2023. Sources also said Cabinet meetings during the Obama years, which Biden attended as vice president, were not pre-scripted this way.
Do you think there aren't Cabinet officials who may feel betrayed by the way they were being misled about Biden's health? Are there also Cabinet officials who might be willing to boot Biden if they think it might help the party win in November or to save their own political futures?
The jig is up now, and if Biden won't go willingly, the panic in the party might become so great that ousting him might be the only option Democrats have. At the very least, they might use this tactic to threaten Biden to drop out on his own.
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