Biden – end of the line?

Has President Joe Biden reached the end of the line? Will he serve out his term? Resign? Or go officially into a kind of extended care, with someone else managing the affairs of state? And if so, who will that person be – and for how long? Such speculation would have been nothing more than wishful thinking on the part of his political opponents. But then his wrongful possession of classified materials came to light. But did they merely come to light? Or did someone – or a group of someones – bring it to light, deliberately?

The Biden documents – a curious sequence

As shocking as the apparent careless handling – some say theft – of classified documents is, the identity of the breakers of the story is more shocking still. For this story did not come from James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas, nor even from that inveterate muckraker, Laura Loomer. It came from CBS News, and the further development came from NBC News. And the story of Merrick Garland appointing a Special Counsel in the Biden case came from The New York Times.

All three of these organs have made light of every aspersion anyone ever cast on Biden. From the results of the Election of 2020 to evaluation of his policies after taking office, he could always count on these three organs to tell the people no, no, no, no, no, you mustn’t doubt our President, that’s deleterious to our democracy. (Lay aside for a moment that “democracy” means two wolves and a lamb voting on what’s for dinner.) Why, then, do they break the one story Biden can least afford to have broken? A story that reveals the utter hypocrisy, not only of Biden himself but of all his allies as well? For this pResident, in the middle of accusing his predecessor of gross negligence in handling classified material, had done it himself. And what he cannot excuse, is that he did it while a private citizen. Furthermore, he did it after stepping down from an office that did not give him the power to de-classify anything.

The timeline

Consider the timeline, not only of events but of their revelation:

Garland also said that Biden’s former Penn Biden Center office was “not authorized for storage of classified documents.”

For that matter, why is Garland so quick to appoint a Special Counsel? He could have stalled through the election, and told Senator John Hawley (R-Mo.) to demand and be d____d. But he didn’t. Furthermore, he named another Trump appointee – and one with a reputation for prosecuting Democrats.

What is likely to happen next?

Stephen Turley, PhD, speculated that the powers-that-be will quietly hide Biden in his Delaware home. Someone else will manage things at the White House. Perhaps they will brings bills, draft Executive Orders, and other documents to his home for signature.

The closest historical precedent for such a policy – and the parallels are by no means exact – came from Edith Bolling Galt Wilson. When her husband Woodrow suffered a stroke, for one solid year she kept his condition secret. She managed the affairs of State, even to holding Cabinet meetings in the White House residential quarters. She also decided what and whom to bring to Wilson’s personal attention. Small wonder, then, that some wags call her “The First Woman President.”

But Jill Biden is not fulfilling that role. According to (forgive the phrase) a person familiar with the situation, Ambassador Susan Rice manages the affairs of state. She has been managing the affairs of state from the beginning. Rice does not sign anything. But one can readily imagine her presenting bills, E.O.s and such to Biden for him to sign. Rice even carries an official title: Director of the Domestic Policy Council.

Let not Biden’s heartfelt, often vindictive and vituperative public statements fool you. A man can speak from the heart – even a black heart – and still be a puppet on a string.

But can the PTBs risk Biden being that passive?

That’s actually an open question. Thus far, Ambassador Rice has stayed totally in the background. “Powers behind the throne” usually are so content. But Biden has not only one powerful woman in his orbit, but two. The second is Vice-President Kamala Harris.

Unlike Rice, Harris could put herself into a position in which she could run the affairs of state directly, in her own name, and by her own signature. That would require two events that would shake the country.

First, Kamala Harris gathers the signatures of a majority of the Cabinet on a written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. If that happens, Kamala Harris becomes Acting President. Rumors had her trying to gather signatures after Afghanistan fell to pieces. In Auguest 2022, Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) circulated a letter to Harris, urging her to gather signatures.

But this procedure has a catch. The President could contest the declaration. Whereupon the Vice-President and her Cabinet majority would have to double down on it. Even so, Congress would then decide the issue. Congress would have twenty-four hours to affirm the Vice-President’s declaration by two-thirds of both Houses.

Why might Biden contest the declaration? Because Ambassador Rice would tell him to. If Kamala Harris gains the “Power of Attorney” in this way, that diminishes Rice. Even her Directorship of the Domestic Policy Council would not make up for her loss of the “presentation power.” If Harris can sign, who needs Rice?

Impeachment

The second event depends, not on Section Four of Amendment XXV, but Section One:

In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death or resignation, the Vice-President shall become President. U.S. Constitution, Amendment XXV, Section One

Removal – or resignation after the threat of removal – would be the means. And that’s where those classified documents come in. The situation is already so serious that Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.-4) has already suggested that Republicans planted those documents in Biden’s former Penn Biden Center office and garage. This same man once suggested that Guam might literally capsize from so many refugees standing on one shore of it. So perhaps one ought not take him seriously – except for one thing. Suppose he is correct about the planting, erring only in whom he accuses of it? Suppose Biden’s own people have planted those documents all along?

He professes surprise that those documents are anywhere in his possession, and doesn’t know what they contain. True, one might put that down to faulty memory. Biden does tend to forget much else. But no one can remember that which did not happen.

In fact, on the very day Merrill Matthews of The Hill speculated openly about Harris invoking Section Four, Biden’s personal attorneys were finding classified documents in his old civilian office.

Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, and the third time it’s enemy action. Ian Fleming

CNAV thought then that Matthews was blowing smoke. But was he?

Stay tuned.