DeSantis floats 25th Amendment against Biden after special counsel report

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested President Joe Biden can be removed from office in light of a special counsel report further calling into question the president’s mental fitness to serve.

The report focused on Biden’s “willful” handling of classified documents while a private citizen, but also mentioned various memory lapses when asking him questions during the investigation.

“There’s been a lot of focus, understandably, on the provision saying, ‘hey, this guy is just too senile, to actually stand trial, a jury wouldn’t convict him,'” DeSantis said on Fox News’ “Life, Liberty & Levin.”

“OK, you can’t stand trial, but somehow you can have the nuclear codes?” he said. “What about invoking the 25th Amendment, then, if that’s what it’s going to be? And obviously, that’s going to continue to be a huge political issue.”

DeSantis also argued that Biden’s mental acuity has taken precedence over the facts surrounding his handling of classified documents.

“This was willful retention of documents over many decades,” he said. “This was like a pattern in practice when he was a U.S. senator, when he was vice president, when he got out of office.”

“I think back to the Hillary Clinton case […]She set up that server, it really wasn’t about classified. She just didn’t want her communications to be subjected to FOIA,” he said. “Biden, I think, was even more willful, because he was doing this for a pattern of practice.”

“These documents are sprinkled over how many different locations and so clearly, they had the goods, if they wanted to go forward and recommend [charges],” he continued. “Of course, a sitting president, that that’s a separate issue, but they’re hanging their hat on the fact that this guy is effectively not mentally competent to stand trial. How pathetic is that for our country, that this is the guy that has the nuclear codes.”

Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott called for using the 25th Amendment last week.

“It’s time. The cabinet should invoke the 25th Amendment,” Scott said on social media, as Biden delivered a gaffe-filled speech Thursday night, mixing up the names of the leaders of Mexico and Egypt and deriding the investigators’ questioning of his mental fitness.

Under the 25th Amendment, the vice president and majority of Cabinet officers can declare to Congress that the president cannot exercise his office’s powers. Once the vice president and Cabinet approve, the vice president becomes acting president.

The president can then issue a declaration that he can still exercise his duties, but the Cabinet and vice president can bring the issue back to Congress to make the ultimate decision with two-thirds votes.