As Democrats grapple with whether to back President Biden for re-election, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican leaders argue that his presidency poses a danger to the country.
Polls and some Democrats in Washington have turned against Mr. Biden, a development that Mr. Johnson suggested Republicans could use to their advantage politically. However, he also expressed concern over the implications, calling Mr. Biden’s condition “dangerous.”
When questioned about Rep. Chip Roy’s proposal for Vice President Kamala Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Biden, Mr. Johnson said many Americans and Republicans would support such a historic move.
“There’s a time for every purpose under heaven; desperate times call for desperate measures. I think the 25th Amendment is appropriate here,” Mr. Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday.
House Republican leaders strongly criticized Mr. Biden, labeling him unfit to serve and asserting that the GOP’s warnings about his health and mental decline were valid. House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik from New York accused Democrats and the media of concealing the president’s true condition.
“Every time we raised these legitimate concerns, far-left Democrats and their loyal stenographers in the mainstream media rushed to Biden’s defense, claiming that the clearly diminished Joe Biden was as sharp as ever and accusing us of peddling conspiracy theories,” she said.
House Democrats held a closed-door meeting off-campus to address the growing divide within their ranks over supporting Mr. Biden. Members who spoke to the press maintained their support for him as the Democratic nominee but acknowledged that further discussions were necessary to achieve full unity.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, also a Republican from Louisiana, pointed out that Democrats were considering nullifying the votes of 14 million primary voters who had chosen Joe Biden as their nominee.
“Think about that. The party that loves lecturing people about democracies is in a smoke-filled room trying to throw out the democratically chosen nominee for president by the Democratic voters,” Mr. Scalise said.
