Repeated mistakes, “bad memory”… Can Joe Biden be impeached because of his cognitive abilities?

A prosecutor in charge of investigating Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents pointed to the Democratic president’s “bad memory” in his report. Republicans consider him “unfit” to be the head of the United States.

Joe Biden must have been delighted by the news. Robert Hurr, the special prosecutor appointed to investigate his mishandling of classified documents, announced this Thursday, February 8, that he would not prosecute the American president.

But the reason given was the effect of a political bomb. At the conclusion of the lengthy report, the magistrate argues that “an inquiry would not be justified” against a “sympathetic, well-intentioned old man with a bad memory”.

Referring to an exchange that lasted several hours with the Democratic leader, Robert Hurr suggested that Joe Biden “couldn’t remember when he was vice president,” or the exact year of his eldest son Beau’s death.

A blow to Joe Biden’s campaign

The report is a blow to the Democratic leader’s campaign for re-election and a boost to his opponents who see him as too old to govern. At 81, Joe Biden is multiplying his oratorical mistakes and moments of confusion. This Sunday, February 4, again, he confused Emmanuel Macron with François Mitterrand.

“I mean well, I’m an old man and I know what I’m doing, it (…) I don’t have memory problems,” defended an angry Joe Biden during a last-minute planned speech. Thursday through Friday nights.

“How dare he talk about it? (…) I don’t need anyone to remind me when he died,” he added, apparently about his son, whose wrist he wears.

But at the end of his speech, he made a final mistake by referring to Egypt’s head of state, Marshal El-Sisi, as the “Mexican president”.

That was enough for Republicans to run into the breach. In a press release, Republican staff in the House of Representatives judged Joe Biden “Unfit” to lead the country..

Republicans invoke the 25th Amendment

Republican elected officials leader Mike Johnson, a close friend of Donald, asserted, “While we don’t have the faculties necessary to be a judge (…), we certainly don’t have the faculties necessary to be in the Oval Office. Trump. Republican Congressman Kevin Hearn of Oklahoma asserted. Said, “An old man with a bad memory doesn’t need to have the nuclear codes.”

Elected officials from the Republican camp go so far as to demand the implementation of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which allows for the termination of the President’s functions if the latter is unable to carry them out.

For Simon Grivet, a lecturer in United States history at the University of Lille, the Republicans’ announcements will amount to little more than simple political agitation.

“In order to activate this amendment, the agreement of the vice-president and the majority of cabinet members (ministers) of the Biden administration is necessary,” recalls the expert of BFMTV.com. So the option is highly unlikely.

Processes doomed to failure

According to Simon Grivette, the 25th Amendment was designed “for cases of extreme emergency, in case the president has a stroke or falls into a coma,” and has never been invoked in American history.

However, the simple fact that this amendment is being branded says a lot about the concerns surrounding Joe Biden. “The last time the question was asked was at the end of Ronald Reagan’s second term, when the Republican president was caricatured as a grumpy old man,” the teacher underlines.

Other elected officials, such as Trumpist Marjorie-Taylor Green, are calling for impeachment proceedings against Joe Biden, the target of an impeachment inquiry last December. But the chances of the maneuver succeeding are also slim.

“The US Constitution provides that Congress may impeach the President in cases of ‘treason, corruption, or other high crimes and misdemeanors’. The health of the President is not one of the valid grounds”, sweep Simon Grivette.

Even if an impeachment process were initiated, it would have no chance of success, as the Senate, which is dominated by Democrats, must vote on impeachment as a last resort.

If Joe Biden follows through on his mandate in all likelihood, his re-election campaign promises to be fragile as Prosecutor Hurr’s report gives Donald Trump supporters food for thought.

The former Republican president, accustomed to outlandish comments and outlandish statements, also had his moments of confusion. But this has had little impact on his campaign, with the billionaire enjoying huge popularity with his supporters.