House Republicans are calling on President Biden to resign from office after he announced that he would no longer seek reelection, arguing that he should not continue to serve in the White House if he is unable to run for another term.
The comments — several of which were from House GOP leadership — came shortly after Biden said he was withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race, a seismic announcement that rocked the political world and left the path forward for Democrats uncertain.
“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote on the social platform X. “November 5 cannot arrive soon enough.”
The one upside for the Republicans of Harris becoming POTUS right now is that she’d no longer be able to break any ties in the Senate, letting them bring both houses of Congress to a halt.
Harris would just name a new VP to break any ties in the Senate.
25th Amendment, Section 2:
Between the do-nothing House and the hypothetically deadlocked Senate, it’d never happen. Besides, without a VP, the Speaker of the House is the next in line for the Presidency.
Does that make the Speaker the one responsible for certification of election results on January 6th 2025?
That’s not how the line of succession works, though. A25S2 says precisely what happens if there’s a VP vacancy, but not a presidential vacancy.
The Speaker gets bumped to President if BOTH VP and President are vacant.
That said, I’m sure the Tribunal of Six can come up with some sort of creative interpretation to apply things in a blatantly biased and partisan fashion.
So nothing changes then.