Sen. Scott calls for 25th Amendment to remove President Biden
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott reiterated Tuesday that the time had come to consider removing President Joe Biden from office under provisions of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The Senator had made that call on Monday via press release, and Tuesday was his first media hit in support of the concept.
Scott, on the Panhandle’s News Radio 1620, said Biden wasn’t “showing up” and there were questions about whether the President was “capable of discharging the duties of his office.”
“We have to confront a serious question. Is Joe Biden capable of discharging the duties of his office? He’s clearly not showing up to do it, so what’s the problem here? And so, I think it’s a legitimate question now,” Scott said.
When pressed as to how the removal of the President might happen, Scott was somewhat opaque about how the process would move forward in Democratic Washington.
“We’ve gotta figure out why he is not showing up,” Scott said, mentioning that Biden wouldn’t go to the Mexican border and has done “nothing to get the internet back on” for Cuban protesters.
“He’s making choices to do nothing in this job. He’s on vacation. So whatever the reason is, his inability to serve has to be questioned,” Scott urged.
Ahead of Biden’s speech Monday exonerating himself from blame for what is happening in Afghanistan, Scott tweeted a suggestion that the 25th Amendment may be invoked because of Biden’s inaction in the wake of the Taliban toppling the American client government in Kabul this weekend.
“After the disastrous events in Afghanistan, we must confront a serious question: Is Joe Biden capable of discharging the duties of his office or has time come to exercise the provisions of the 25th Amendment?”
Invoking the 25th Amendment would make Vice President Kamala Harris President. Scott has criticized Harris as well, including attempting to delegitimize her position by asking “what has she ever accomplished” during a Fox News hit earlier this year.
Under former President Donald Trump’s administration, some Democrats also called for invoking the 25th amendment after the attack on the Capitol Jan. 6. While those calls were unsuccessful, Democrats did successfully impeach Trump for a second time, though he was not removed from office after a Senate trial.
At the time, Scott said the videos shown during the impeachment trial were “horrible,” but ultimately voted not to remove Trump, arguing the process was a “charade.”
Scott questioned Biden’s ability and acuity before, including during the 2020 campaign where the Senator advocated for President Donald Trump’s reelection. Scott likened Biden’s favored position with the press to the man he bested in the 2018 General Election.
“You’ve got to be on your game every day,” Scott chided. “The media’s all in.”
Scott compared the treatment of Trump to his perspective on how media treated him when challenging former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who Scott’s campaign contended was too old, ineffectual, and out of touch to remain in Washington.
“Look at the standard; it’s so different,” Scott said, framing a revisionist history that “Nelson would do a gaffe every time he did an interview so he’d stay home.”
Scott also offered bruising criticisms of Biden on the radio Monday, telling a Wisconsin audience that Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal and his messaging thereof highlighted a “do-nothing” presidency.
“He’s on vacation,” Scott groused. “He’s been on vacation for six months!”
Scott isn’t the only Senator from Florida blasting Biden. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio offered his own Twitter tirade, though it stopped short of suggesting the 25th Amendment mechanism.
A.G. Gancarski has been a correspondent for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. In 2018, he was a finalist for an Association of Alternative Newsweeklies "best political column." He can be reached at AG@FloridaPolitics.com.
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