What did Kamala Harris know about President Joe Biden’s declining mental abilities and when did she know it? And what steps has the vice president taken to protect the nation from a chief executive who may not be 100% capable of fulfilling the duties of his office 100% of the time?
Answers to those questions are key to determining whether the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is serving the people’s interests or her own.
Harris was among the fiercest defenders of the president as evidence of his decline mounted, repeatedly declaring him sound of mind and body. She was the president’s fiercest defender last winter when Special Counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents, released a devastating report recommending no criminal charges be filed because Hur doubted a jury would convict someone in the president’s compromised mental state.
“Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” the report concluded.
Hur, who spent hours interviewing Biden, said the president couldn’t remember key dates, including when his son, Beau, died and when he served as Barack Obama’s vice president.
It set off a panic among Democrats. The White House, with Harris in the lead, pushed back furiously against Hur’s depiction.
“Listen, I have been privileged and proud to serve as vice president of the United States with Joe Biden as president of the United States, and what I saw [in] that report last night, I believe, is — as a former prosecutor, the comments that were made by that prosecutor were gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate,” Harris said in response to Hur. “Our president is in good shape, in good health, and is ready to lead in our second term.”
Harris had to know better. A Fox News investigation revealed she met with Biden more than 80 times over the past year, often enough to get a first-hand view of his condition. She also should have known, as a second-in-command who always must be ready to step in, that a Parkinson’s disease specialist had visited the White House eight times in eight months.
Had the Hur report ended Biden’s reelection bid, Democrats would have had time to replace him through competitive primaries that likely would not have favored Harris.
More: Trump recommits to a Sept. 10 debate at news conference and lashes out at Harris
Even after the debate debacle on June 27, Harris was publicly attesting to the president’s fitness to serve. Credit that to loyalty, perhaps, but also to dereliction of duty. The 25th Amendment calls on the vice president to sound the alarm when a president becomes in any way unfit to serve. The amendment gives the VP the power to act with a majority of the cabinet or a body appointed by Congress to strip the president of his powers.
Harris clearly benefited from Biden remaining in the race until the last minute, leaving no time for competitive primaries before the Democratic National Convention and little choice for Democrats but to anoint her.
In propping up Biden for so long, Democrats hope to salvage the election. The cover-up benefitted Harris. She should have to answer for the role she played.
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Publish date : 2024-08-10 13:02:00
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