House GOP Floats New Plan To Replace Biden
Worried that the 14th Amendment doesn’t actually say what he wants it to say, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) is floating a new way to try to remove President Joe Biden from office: Call the 2020 election results themselves illegitimate, and use that as a pretext to replace Biden with someone else.
“There’s real questions about the legitimacy of the election,” Scalise told Politico in an interview. “And I think if the states got together and said we want to fix what happened in 2020, they can’t change the outcome, but they can at least make sure it wasn’t as fraudulent as it looks like it was.”
On Monday, Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican, introduced a resolution to initiate a constitutional amendment that would “affirm the right of states to certify the electoral votes in a presidential election.” The measure would require two-thirds of the House to pass, as well as two-thirds of the Senate and three-fourths of the states. It is the latest sign that the House GOP is looking for any possible way to remove Biden from office.
House Republicans’ latest effort to remove Biden from office by invoking the 14th Amendment has faltered
The move comes as House Republicans’ latest effort to remove Biden from office by invoking the 14th Amendment has faltered. Last week, House Republicans passed an amendment led by Rep. Darryl Issa (R-CA) calling for Biden to be “removed from the Office of the President and declared ineligible to hold any office of trust, honor, or profit under the United States” under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
But on Tuesday, the Senate voted 67-33 against the House amendment, with most Senate Republicans joining Democrats to back Biden.
Under the 14th Amendment, a president can be removed from office if they have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” Many legal experts say that “aid and comfort” is narrowly defined and that Biden’s statements and actions don’t come close to justifying his removal from office under the amendment.
Scalise is not the only House Republican to float the idea
Scalise’s new plan can only be described as desperate. There is zero evidence that the 2020 election was stolen, and hundreds of audits and court rulings have upheld the legitimacy of the results. But that hasn’t stopped Scalise and other allies of former President Donald Trump from pushing baseless conspiracy theories about the election.
Scalise’s resolution is little more than a symbolic gesture. There is virtually no chance that House Democrats would agree to two-thirds of the House supporting a constitutional amendment that would allow states to throw out the results of a presidential election.
When asked by Politico who could replace Biden in the White House, Scalise demurred.
* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.