As the walls close in on the Biden family reelection effort, it is becoming increasingly likely that Jill Biden will be forced to throw in the towel, give up power, and walk Joe Biden off the political stage for the last time. In the modern, identity-politics-dependent Democrat Party, Vice President Kamala Harris will provide the only real option for a replacement. At that point, candidate Harris will have some serious explaining to do.
The first question for candidate Harris must be: “Why did you repeatedly lie to the American people about Joe Biden’s mental fitness to be president?” We need not be sticklers about the precise form of this first question.
“Why did you repeatedly lie about the most important issue facing the nation, the chief executive’s mental competence?” would be a suitable formulation.
However it’s phrased, Harris must be accountable for three obvious facts. First, Harris knew all along of Biden’s lack of competence to serve as president. Second, Harris knew the serious inherent dangers facing the country as a result of Biden’s mental state. Third, Harris disregarded those dangers and intentionally concealed them from the American public for political reasons.
The VP Has Been Lying for Quite Some Time
Just 10 months ago, Harris told Americans that Biden was not only mentally fit for the job but effectively the sharpest person she knows:
I see him every day. A substantial amount of time we spend together is in the Oval Office, where I see how his ability to understand issues and weave through complex issues in a way that no one else can, to make smart and important decisions on behalf of the American people, have played out.
Perhaps, as of last September, Biden’s mental state had not yet hit rock bottom. But the smartest man in the room? That was a lie.
Last November, Harris repeated what we now know is utter nonsense: “I spend a whole lot of time with our president. … I will tell you that he is in front of often everyone in the room in terms of thinking about how we can resolve issues …” Lie.
In January, Harris told Americans that questions about Biden’s age and mental acuity were designed to “divide our country” and were not “real issues.” She denounced Republicans for raising such concerns by claiming “they have nothing to run on.” Lie.
In February, Special Counsel Robert Hur issued his report into Biden’s decades-long mishandling of classified documents dating back to his years as a senator and vice president. That investigation revealed that Biden took highly classified documents from the government, “willfully” retained them openly in his garage, and then “willfully” disclosed the classified information to his ghostwriter as part of an $8 million book deal.
Hur nevertheless declined to prosecute, concluding that Biden would present himself to a jury “as a sympathetic elderly man with a poor memory,” making it difficult to prove a felony requiring “a mental state of willfulness.”
In response to the Hur report, Harris told Americans that Hur’s description of Biden’s mental lapses was not merely wrong but “gratuitous, inaccurate, and inappropriate.” She insisted that Hur’s characterization of Biden’s mental fitness “could not be more wrong on the facts” and was “clearly politically motivated.” More lies.
In March, after the State of the Union address, Harris told Americans that Biden’s “fiery” speech “put to rest” any voter concerns about Biden’s age. Lie.
Even in the immediate aftermath of the disastrous June 27 debate, Harris refused to admit Biden’s obvious mental decline.
Vice Presidents Get No Free Pass
As vice president, Harris’ situation vis-a-vis Biden’s mental incompetence is sui generis.
For the good of the country, Jill Biden should have hinted about this problem and gently walked Joe off stage many months (or years ago). But Jill is Joe’s wife. She gets a free pass politically, even if not morally.
Gavin Newsom, Andy Beshear, Josh Shapiro, or fill-in-the-blank-with-any-other-Democrat governor can at least claim plausible deniability: “We are hundreds (or thousands) of miles away from Washington and can only go by what White House insiders say.”
Not Harris. As vice president, she spends “a whole lot of time” with Biden and “see[s] him every day.” Moreover, the 25th Amendment imposes substantial constitutional duties on the vice president specifically to take action in the event of the president’s mental unfitness for office. Faithfully performing those duties serves, among other things, to inform the country and its citizens of any genuine questions about the president’s fitness for office.
When a president, for example, decides to let another country shoot American-supplied missiles into Russia, Americans are entitled to know whether he is mentally fit to make such a decision. That is true whether one independently agrees with the decision regarding the use of such weapons.
Vice President Harris has no excuses. She simply elected to lie to the American people about the most serious issue facing the country — the mental fitness of its chief executive officer. And she did so for party politics.
Thus, the first question for candidate Harris must be: “Why did you lie?” At that point, her candidacy should be over, obviating the need for any further questions.
