Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) wrote a letter Friday to his Senate Republican colleagues about the implications of President Joe Biden’s performance at Thursday’s debate.
In the letter, obtained by the Hill, Tillis suggested that Biden, 81, should step aside “for the sake of the country” and that if he is “unaware of his own unfitness to continue serving,” the Cabinet should consider invoking the 25th Amendment, by which members can vote to transfer authority to the vice president.
Tillis wrote that watching the presidential debate “was painful, and I truly feel bad for President Biden.” The senator said physical and cognitive decline “is a normal part of the aging process for many people” but that displaying it on a debate stage “is most certainly not normal.”
The call echoes those made by some Republicans in the House of Representatives, including Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who filed a resolution that would compel Vice President Kamala Harris to convene the Cabinet and activate Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to declare Biden “incapable of executing the duties of his office.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) also asked Cabinet members to “search their hearts” and consider whether the president is capable of carrying out the remainder of his term.
“If Biden cannot speak coherently, articulate his policies, and is unfit to perform after weeks of preparation, how will he perform when America is truly tested by a national security crisis, the kind of historic, high-stakes test his predecessors have been confronted with?” Tillis wrote, adding that he believes the president is “a decent man who cares about the country.”
However, Tillis determined, Biden is “unfit to continue serving as leader of the free world.”
Harris and Cabinet members have faced calls to invoke the 25th Amendment before. When special counsel Robert Hur released his report on Biden’s handling of classified documents in February, he described the president as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” prompting many Republicans in Congress to suggest removing him from office.
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The president acknowledged his age and its effects on his debate performance the next day at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, saying, “I know right from wrong. I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done, and I know like millions of Americans know: When you get knocked down, you get back up.”
Biden is scheduled to meet presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on the debate stage once again on Sept. 10.
