After the report was released, there were renewed bipartisan calls for Biden to step down as commander-in-chief. Now, the nation’s second-in-command says she is ready to step in should Biden discontinue serving as president. “I am ready to serve. There’s no question about that,” Vice President Kamala Harris said during a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that was published Feb. 12. She added that everyone who sees her on the job “walks away fully aware of my capacity to lead.” Special counsel Robert Hur had been investigating Biden over a trove of classified material taken after Biden previously served as senator and vice president, finding after questioning that Biden has “diminished faculties in advancing age.” Investigators considered the 81-year-old president’s memory “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and having “significant limitations,” according to the report. Recently, Biden erroneously referred to Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah El-Sissi as the president of Mexico. Now, even Democrats appear to be contemplating a path for Harris to take the reins. “There was always going to be a lot of scrutiny and pressure on her in the 2024 campaign, and that moment’s here now,” Jennifer Palmieri, a former Obama and Clinton staffer, told WSJ. “I think that the special counsel’s report has sort of accelerated that moment.” Biden’s inner circle maintains he will continue campaigning and that he will not be replaced. If he were to step down prior to August’s Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, Harris would still need to earn enough delegates to win the party’s nomination. If Biden were to resign or end his candidacy after the convention, the DNC’s rules allow the party to simply nominate a replacement:Last week, a special counsel report declared President Joe Biden too mentally unfit to bother prosecuting over mishandled classified documents.
In the event of death, resignation or disability of a nominee of the Party for President or Vice President after the adjournment of the National Convention, the National Chairperson of the Democratic National Committee shall confer with the Democratic leadership of the United States Congress and the Democratic Governors Association and shall report to the Democratic National Committee, which is authorized to fill the vacancy or vacancies.
