Joseph Zambon
Only two hours after President Biden announced his decision to withdraw from the presidential race, Rep. Nick Langworthy released his usual Sunday email to New York’s 23rd Congressional District. Just two hours after the President’s announcement, Langworthy already had the Republican talking points in his email. It’s almost as if they were prepared for his withdrawal.
As evident from the picture above, Langworthy is a highly partisan MAGA Republican and rabid Trump supporter. He was chair of the Erie County Republican Party and then the New York State Republican Party, succeeding Richard Nixon’s son-in-law, Edward Cox. That job and Chris Jacob’s decision to leave Congress set the stage for Langworthy’s 2022 election to represent the New York 23rd Congressional District.
Republican Talking Points
Langworthy’s email includes the same Republican talking points being pushed by Elise Stefanik, J. D. Vance, Mike Johnson, and the usual chorus of Republican politicians and Republican media. Focusing on Langworthy’s email:
“… President Biden, who has lost the confidence of the Democratic party, decided not to seek re-election…” – it’s fair to say that President Biden lost the confidence of some members of the Democratic party, including those who publicly called on him to withdraw such as actor George Clooney and those who privately called on him to withdraw such as several House Democrats,
“… I’m calling on him to resign. He’s not fit to serve as President and Commander-in-Chief…” – this talking point has been bandied about since the debate. Speaker Johnson (R-LA) was one of the first to raise this a week or so ago. Today, as part of the coordinated Republican messaging campaign, New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanick, who was recently passed over as Trump’s Vice Presidential candidate, released this same message only moments after President Biden made his announcement.
Coordinated Messaging Campaign
The language used by Stefanik and Langworthy and also by Claudia Tenney representing NY23 is all similar to what you’d expect in a highly coordinated messaging campaign.
Stefanik writes, “he is unable and unfit to serve as President of the United States.
Langworthy writes, “He’s not fit to serve as President and Commander-in-Chief.”
Claudia Tenney, who has been described as lacking a moral compass for mocking Paul Pelosi after he was nearly murdered, wrote, ” If Joe Biden is mentally unfit to campaign, he must resign his presidency immediately…”
The Republicans were prepared for the possibility of President Biden’s withdrawal with their coordinated messaging campaign.
“If he won’t run, he must resign.”
The Republican argument is illogical. Langworthy, Stefanik, and the Republican Vice Presidential candidate and “Hillbilly Elegy” author J. D. Vance argue that “If Joe Biden can’t run for re-election, he is unable and unfit to serve as President of the United States. He must immediately resign. ”
President Biden can run for re-election. Various individuals, including Republican leaders, have acknowledged his mental acuity. The New York Times wrote that despite publicly attacking the President for his age, “Privately, [Speaker] McCarthy has told allies that he has found Mr. Biden to be mentally sharp in meetings.” Politico similarly wrote, “McCarthy mocked Biden’s age and mental acuity in public while privately telling allies that he found the president sharp and substantive in their conversations. After the 2023 budget negotiations, Speaker McCarthy publicly told Punchbowl News that in their discussions, the President was “Very professional, very smart. Very tough at the same time.” Matt Gaetz went after McCarthy on the floor of the House for being outsmarted by President Biden in budget negotiations. Gaetz said. “It is going to be difficult for my Republican friends to keep calling President Biden feeble while he continues to take Speaker McCarthy’s lunch money in every negotiation.”
President Biden chose not to run after losing support from some Democrats, including major donors.
The Republican argument is, “If he won’t run, he must resign.” This is sort of a Republican forced candidacy requirement like the Republican forced pregnancy requirement they’ve instituted in several states through their fetal heartbeat bills.
[Digression – I remember Kansas Senator and one-time Republican presidential candidate (and disabled WWII war hero) Bob Dole on a Sunday morning talk show. He described how he called an 800 number before the show to hear that day’s Republican talking points. Today, rather than an 800 number, there is probably a highly secure Republican website – maybe on the dark web – that provides the day’s talking points and suggested text to include in messaging, such as Langworthy’s letter. End of digression
"Former Republican Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he briefly talked about using the 25th Amendment to remove former President Trump from power...."
The 25th Amendment
While the Republican talking point in Langworthy’s constituent email, Tenney’s statement, Stefanik’s statement, and J. D. Vance’s campaign rhetoric demand President Biden’s resignation due to specious charges of diminished mental and physical capacity, they haven’t said anything about the 25th Amendment. If Republicans believe that President Biden is incapacitated, they should call for the implementation of the 25th Amendment. The 25th Amendment was specifically written to address presidential incapacitation and to provide a mechanism that doesn’t rely on presidents to remove themselves from office.
As described at ConstitutionCenter.org. “Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”
Ironically, the last time the 25th Amendment was seriously discussed was in the final days of the Trump presidency. As described in The Hill, “Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he briefly talked about using the 25th Amendment to remove former President Trump from power during a discussion with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot.”
When I first heard the “he must immediately resign” talking point, I couldn’t understand why Republicans would want President Biden to resign and then face an incumbent, President Kamala Harris, during the general election. The Republicans know that President Biden won’t resign. In his withdrawal statement, he wrote that he wanted to”…focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
Precedent for a Sitting President to Withdraw
And there is precedent for a sitting president to withdraw from a re-election campaign and then to serve out his term. In 1968, Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not seek a second full term as president (which I remember watching in my college dormitory). He served out his term. There were no calls for him to resign, even though the Vietnam War was tearing the country apart.
Calls for President Biden to resign is political strategy. Both parties interfere with the opposition party’s primary process. Both Democrats and Republicans donate to primary candidates in the other party to try to advance the weakest candidate to the general election. In 2012, for example, Democratic incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill’s (D-MO) campaign paid $1.7 million for ads to help conservative Republican congressman Todd Akin win his party’s nomination. She defeated him in the general election,
Republicans were counting on facing President Biden. They thought he was the weakest candidate. Just last week, the Trump campaign boasted that they would beat President Biden “in a landslide.” Polling supported this view and showed Trump leading President Biden in critical battleground states.
Trump Whining and Evidence of Diminished Mental Capacity
Republicans invested millions of dollars in campaign ads targeting President Biden, money that is now wasted. Trump is always focused on money. According to Salon, “Trump has also complained about the Republican Party ‘having to start all over again’ after ‘spending time and money’ campaigning against Biden. …. Shouldn’t the Republican Party be reimbursed?”
Now, Trump won’t face President Biden. He’ll face Kamala Harris.
President Biden was the oldest person in the race. Now, Trump is the oldest person in the race. There were questions about President Biden’s mental capacity. Now, there are questions about Trump’s mental capacity.
There are numerous examples of Trump’s declining mental capacity. Trump forgets names. He confuses people and places.
- He confused former President Barack Obama with President Joe Biden.
- He confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi.
- He said he beat Barack Obama in 2016 when he actually defeated Hillary Clinton.
- He confused Jeb Bush with George Bush.
- He said Viktor Orban was president of Turkey when he was president of Hungary.
- He confused cities – Sioux Falls or Sioux City.
- He’s confused about whether his son Don Jr. is married or engaged to be married.
- He said tourists who visit the Jefferson Memorial or the Washington Monument “end up getting shot, mugged, raped,” when violent crime is actually down more than 20% in DC (There are draconian plans for Washington, D.C. in Project 2025.) He claimed that President Biden would get the United States into “World War II,” apparently meaning to say World War III.
- He gives rambling, incoherent speeches about sharks, boats, and batteries. He said, “So I said, so there’s a shark 10 yards away from the boat, 10 yards or here, do I get electrocuted if the boat is sinking? Water goes over the battery; the boat is sinking. Do I stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted, or do I jump over by the shark and not get electrocuted?
Trump Calls Military “Losers and Suckers”
Trump doesn’t understand the military, never having served. He thinks people who serve in the military are “losers and suckers “. I take personal offense at that having served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. Trump is unaware that submarines were powered by diesel engines and batteries long before the advent of nuclear submarines.
Trump is 78-years-old. He is the oldest person to ever run for president. Kamala Harris is 18 years younger. Trump would be 84 at the end of a second term. He’s too old to be president.
Trump was thrilled to run against President Biden. He was looking forward to a landslide victory and staying out of prison. Now, he’s terrified of running against former prosecutor Kamala Harris. He doesn’t want to debate her, although the Trump/Harris match-up would draw a huge audience. He‘s already looking to cut and run from his commitment to a September presidential debate. The opening salvo is his announcement that he wants to move the debate from ABC to Fox.
"I think the emerging Republican narrative will be..."
I think the emerging Republican narrative will be as follows: Democrats, the Republicans will falsely claim, including Vice President Harris, know that President Trump is cognitively impaired due to Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s’ or some other disease – it doesn’t matter what disease they come up with – and they, the great conspiracy “they”, have been hiding it for nefarious purposes.
Accordingly, Langworthy, “… it’s been clear to the leftist ruling class in DC that the President has been suffering cognitive decline. His party’s powerbrokers have been working with the media to cover it up and lie to the American people.”
The ruling class, in Langworthy’s definition and that of the Republican pollsters and strategists who came up with this Republican talking point, include Vice President Harris and Senator Schumer (maybe Geroge Soros since his name always comes up in these situations. [As I write this, Donald Trump Jr. is on TV arguing President Biden should resign and invoking George Soros’ name]).
This line of attack is designed to impugn Vice President Harris even before she becomes the nominee and to suggest “a conspiracy at the highest levels of government” – in the best tradition of conspiracy theories. The broad strokes of this conspiracy go, “They knew; they’ve been hiding this from us; they can’t be trusted.”
The “He Must Resign” Republican Line of Attack
There are two other reasons for the “he must resign” attack: It keeps the focus on the Democrats and away from Trump’s age and cognitive issues, away from the Republican assault on a woman’s right to choose, and away from the terrifying Project 2025 agenda authored by Trump’s acolytes. If President Biden resigned and Kamala Harris became president, it would be easier to tie her to all of the supposed sins of the Biden administration. They are already trying to do this. Hence, Langworthy’s statement, “…his administration has been run by radical Kamala Harris… just as responsible for …” blah, blah, blah.
Vice Presidents Don’t Run Administrations
That is a blatant falsehood. The Biden administration is not run by the vice president. No administration is run by a vice president. The vice president is assigned certain responsibilities if they are not ignored altogether.
The Republicans will pursue the “he should resign now” line of attack in the House since they control the House and have been using it to advance their messaging. They’ll hold hearings and subpoena witnesses (hopefully not disgraced witnesses like Chair Comer and the committee, including Rep. Langworthy, did with the farcical President Biden impeachment hearings). Marjorie Taylor Greene will make outrageous statements and use this issue to fundraise – the usual sequence.
Finally, Langworthy writes, “…and bring back American energy independence.” Another Republican talking point and another falsehood. The United States is the world’s largest oil producer for the sixth year in a row. With burgeoning renewable energy supported by President Biden’s administration and opposed by Trump, the United States is the world’s #5 oil exporter and the world’s #1 liquid natural gas exporter.
In a future post, I’ll discuss the Republican platform and the terrifying Project 2025 proposals.