The special investigator hits Joe Biden where it hurts: with age, Boeing gives the all-clear on the tail rudder nut after inspections

What actually happens when an American president is no longer mentally capable of carrying out his duties? In this case, the 25th Amendment comes into play. It states that the government can submit a request for impeachment to Congress in this case. If two-thirds of the representatives and senators agree to this motion, then that is the matter for the president.

This constitutional amendment was introduced in response to the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy. There were fears at the time that the president could continue to live as a “vegetable,” meaning he would languish in a comma for long periods of time without regaining consciousness. However, Kennedy died shortly after the assassination attempt.

The 25th Amendment has never been used. When Ronald Reagan’s signs of Alzheimer’s disease increased toward the end of his term, his cabinet seriously considered it but rejected the idea. Due to his unpredictable and irrational behavior, Donald Trump was also repeatedly referred to this constitutional amendment. No success either.

But now the question of the president’s mental state could arise again. The reason for this is Robert Hur’s 345-page final report. As a special investigator, he was tasked with clarifying whether the classified documents found on President Biden constituted a criminal offense or not. The result is ambivalent for Biden: he is legally acquitted, but politically he is shot in the back.

Hur was deployed after documents that should have been in the national archives appeared in the garage of Biden’s home in Delaware and at a university in Washington. Previously, during an investigation into Trump’s Florida hometown of Mar-a-Lago, the FBI found a large number of documents, some of which had been declared “top secret,” that the ex-president had illegally stored there. Attorney General Merrick Garland then appointed Special Prosecutor Jack Smith to get to the bottom of the case. Smith has since filed a lawsuit against Trump. The trial should take place this summer.

To avoid the impression of a bipartisan judiciary, the attorney general also appointed a special investigator for Biden, and to nip any impression of bias in the bud, he chose Robert Hur, a conservative hardliner. He has now also published his long-awaited final report – and in his own way has caused a political scandal.

Hur concludes that Biden has not committed criminal misconduct. Unlike Trump, he never tried to prevent the documents from being transferred to the National Archives. The sober explanation of this fact would actually have been sufficient. But the special investigator added an unpleasant statement. He stated that Biden was a “nice old gentleman with a bad memory.” Therefore, he would never have been found guilty by a jury.

The special counsel is therefore raising the issue of what is widely considered Biden’s Achilles heel: his age. That’s why James Carville, Bill Clinton’s former campaign strategist, describes this shot in the back in the Wall Street Journal as follows: ‘The worst thing that can happen to a politician is when an existing suspicion is confirmed. When this happens, people say, “Look, Martha, I always told you that.”

God knows there’s no denying that Biden is no longer the youngest. He jokes about it himself. Every now and then he mixes up names – most recently Mitterrand with Macron or Kohl with Merkel – and his gait cannot exactly be called youthful and springy. But his rival Trump is only slightly younger, and his outbursts are just as frequent, not to mention the confusing things about wind turbines and toilet flushes he spouts during his speeches.

Yet only about 25 percent of Americans say Trump’s age is a problem. For Biden it is more than 70 percent. A majority of Democrats also think he is too old. Apparently what every football coach preaches does not apply to him: age does not matter, only performance counts. Biden’s achievements are indisputable. He is the most successful American president of the post-war period.

Biden and Democrats are rightly outraged by Special Counsel Hur’s underhanded behavior. They compare it to the behavior of former FBI Director James Comey. Shortly before the elections, he also acquitted Hillary Clinton because of her emails, but at the same time portrayed her at a press conference as an irresponsible person. Quite a few even blame Comey for Clinton’s defeat.

Hur also hits hard when he states that Biden cannot even remember the day of his son Beau’s death – he died of a brain tumor. “How on earth can he bring up this subject,” a visibly upset Biden said at the press conference.

Does Biden have a plan B?

It is difficult to estimate the extent of the political damage from Hur’s attack. Conservative media like Fox News are jumping on this and will now manage the issue in an endless loop. The Republicans shouldn’t care about that. Biden’s alleged mental weakness has filled about half of Sean Hannity & Co’s airtime for years.

It will be more interesting to see how Democrats will respond to the shot in the back. There are also wild theories in this area, such as the one stating that Biden will not be a candidate at all, but has only registered his candidacy to avoid mudslinging within the party. He would resign at the last minute, allowing the party congress to make an alternative choice. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and California Governor Gavin Newsom are considered favorites.

One winner already knows Special Investigator Hur’s maneuver, Nikki Haley. Trump’s latest rival immediately declared: “Joe Biden and Donald Trump have a lot in common. Neither of them still has their mental faculties, and both handle American secret documents irresponsibly.