Biden Withdrawing From the Race Makes the 25th Amendment a Much More Attractive Option for the Democrats

Joe Biden’s not-surprising decision to withdraw from the 2024 Presidential Campaign has left the Democrats in a pickle. Democrat Party rules require the convention to proceed as planned. Depending upon the state, Biden’s committed delegates may be required to vote for him on one or more ballots. There will be the chance for all kinds of shenanigans, which would have been impossible if Biden had waited until after the convention to withdraw. Making it all the more fun is that the shenanigans will be public, and the butthurt among the losers will be epic. See State laws and party rules on replacing a presidential nominee, 2024.

Making matters worse, the most likely nominee is Vice President Kamala Harris. She’s been a veritable cornucopia of gaffes, stupidity, and inappropriate cackling. She presents the Democrats with a monumental problem. Virtually no one wants her to be the nominee or thinks she can beat Trump. On the other hand, an open convention can’t pick anyone else because of the Democrat Party’s obeisance to intersectionality. Can you imagine the heads exploding and the gritty panties if Harris, a woman who identifies as Black, was supplanted by a pale penis person in Chicago?

As this drama is playing out, a lot of prominent Republicans are asking the logical question. If Biden is too mentally decrepit to run for office, then he is too deranged to continue as president (see As Biden Walks Away From Campaign, Trump Wants to Know: Who’s Running the Country? ) This pitfall could’ve been avoided if Joe’s ego had been just a little smaller or Jill’s greed for power had been a little less, and he’d gracefully bowed out before the primaries started.

The GOP will feature the issue of his fitness to continue in office every day until the Biden U-Haul makes that final trip to Wilmington. That question dogging him will create even more failures as if that were possible.

However, the confluence of events presents the Democrats with an opportunity to look responsible and to improve their electoral chances. They can use the 25th Amendment to remove Joe Biden and allow Harris to run as an incumbent.

Incumbency has real power during elections. An incumbent rarely fails to be reelected; when that happens, they are Republicans.

If you follow political predictions, Alan Licthtman’s 13 Keys model is the most famous. Changing Harris into an incumbent would change the Democrat’s chances of winning from not-good to competitive. 

One of the brakes on the 25th Amendment is that the vice president and a majority of the cabinet must turn on the president. In ordinary times, this is a no-go, and any group attempting it would be signing the death warrants of their political careers. With the presidency up for grabs, an incumbent Harris is much more attractive than a Harris nominated after a floor fight at the convention. In ordinary times, the requirement of a two-thirds vote by both houses would allow the GOP to foil this play. But you can’t logically make a lot of noise about Biden being incompetent and then refuse to remove him.

Admittedly, there are a lot of things that have to line up here and the most likely outcome is that Harris is nominated in Chicago and that Joe Biden serves out the remainder of his term as Dr. Jill’s sockpuppet. However, the siren call of power is very strong, and as we saw in 2020, there may be nothing to which the Democrats won’t stoop to keep the White House.