We're witnessing one of the most tumultuous periods in U.S. political history. And we're only in July.
Beginning with Biden's face-plant debate performance, continuing through the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the nomination of Donald Trump and selection of J.D. Vance as his VP candidate and the Biden announcement that he's not seeking the nomination, this election season is all the chaos that has been advertised and more.
Until this afternoon, Biden hadn't been seen since last Wednesday when he was returning from an NAACP event in Las Vegas.
Officially, Biden left Vegas because he tested positive for COVID. By the way, remember when he said you won't get COVID if you take the jab? Well, Biden's fully vaxxed and boosted, and this is the third time he's gotten the virus.
Or did he?
There are reports that Biden underwent some type of medical emergency in Las Vegas, and that the Secret Service instructed the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to clear traffic for Biden's motorcade so he could go to the hospital.
The Secret Service subsequently gave the LVMPD a stand-down order and the motorcade diverted to the airport instead.
The LVMPD has confirmed the story. What's unconfirmed is the exact nature of the medical emergency.
Sources close to the incident say Biden suffered a transient ischemic attack (TIA), or a mini-stroke. Biden's doctor supposedly determined that it wasn't a full stroke, and that it wasn't necessary for Biden to go to the Vegas hospital.
Again, that's an unconfirmed report. But given Biden's significant cognitive issues, it wouldn't surprise me in the least. And again, until this afternoon he hadn't been seen since in public, arriving at Dover Air Force Base late Wednesday.
You'd think that a president announcing that he wasn't seeking reelection would have appeared before the American people on live television.
Instead, on Sunday Biden (in reality his handlers) issued a written statement announcing his withdrawal from the race. It wasn't even written on official White House letterhead, but on Biden's personal letterhead. His signature also didn't quite match his known signature.
That's not proof that it's not his signature, but under the circumstances it raised more questions about his health.
Biden, supposedly, also issued an executive order yesterday delegating certain governmental functions to the Treasury secretary and the secretary of state. It read, in part:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby order as follows:
Section 1. (a) I hereby delegate to the Secretary of the Treasury the functions and authorities vested in the President by sections 104(a)(1) and 104(a)(2)(A) of the Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity for Ukrainians Act (Division F of Public Law 118-50) (the "Act").
(b) I hereby delegate to the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, the functions and authorities vested in the President by sections 104(g), 104(i), 105(c), 105(e), and 105(g) of the Act.
Do we know if Biden actually authorized it? Given how little we knew about Biden's condition over the past several days, the question isn't as outrageous as it may seem.
As of today, all we know is that Biden's agreed to drop out of the race. The mainstream media is trying to portray Biden's decision to not seek reelection as a selfless act of heroism and patriotism. Don't believe it. In true mafia fashion, Biden was given an offer he couldn't refuse.
Democratic insiders claim that top party figures told Biden that they'd invoke the 25th Amendment to forcibly remove him if he didn't step aside "voluntarily."
As you probably know, the 25th Amendment authorizes the vice president and cabinet members to declare the president unfit to serve, which would force him to step down.
Rather than endure that humiliation and such an ignominious end to his political career, Biden agreed to drop out of the race. He certainly didn't do it for the good of the nation, which the media would like you to believe.
He returned to the White House today from his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and is scheduled to address the nation tomorrow evening.
He's supposed to explain why he's stepping away from the presidential race. But could he announce his immediate resignation? I wouldn't rule it out.
As many people have asked, if Biden's not fit to run for reelection, is he really fit to serve the rest of his term? He'd be a lame-duck president for six months until the next president assumes office in January.
With so much going on in the world right now, from the war in Ukraine to the war in Gaza and potentially a new Israeli war with Iranian proxy Hezbollah, it's reckless for a mentally impaired president to remain in office.
Importantly, how foreign leaders perceive Biden is key. If they perceive him as weak and mentally incompetent, if they don't believe the U.S. has strong leadership, it could invite them to challenge U.S. interests in ways they might not otherwise.
That's important. In other words, the simple perception that the president of the United States is unfit for office is itself a potential national security threat. In this case, perception is reality.
For that reason, among others, Biden should resign. That would of course make Kamala Harris president. Politically, in some ways it would make good sense for Democrats.
Handing the presidency to Harris would mean there would be no contentious and divisive convention next month in Chicago, with the potential for several candidates duking it out for the nomination. That would be chaos for the party. With Harris already in office, they would all have to rally behind her.
Going into the November election as president would also give her a certain power of the incumbent. As long as she wouldn't prove herself demonstrably unfit for the office between now and the election, it would legitimize her candidacy.
She would also make a great deal about her being the first female president, and a person of color on top of that. This would energize a large segment of the Democratic Party's base in ways Biden, along with many likely contenders, couldn't.
Harris is nonetheless unpopular within the Democratic Party overall. And if she loses the November election, it would give the party the chance to get rid of her altogether. She'd have no realistic chance at another shot four years down the road. Goodbye and good riddance, thanks for the memories.
We'll have to see how it all shakes out. But stay tuned. It's already been a wild election season and it could get even wilder.
The Daily Reckoning