Buttigieg defends Biden when GOP Rep. Troy Nehls asks whether 25th Amendment should be invoked

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg defended President Joe Biden at a heated House hearing on Tuesday after Republican Rep. Troy Nehls asked whether the Cabinet should invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Biden from office.

Buttigieg was meant to testify on the White House’s bipartisan infrastructure bill before the House Transportation Committee when Nehls delved into his own line of questioning on whether Biden is mentally fit for office.

‘You [Buttigieg] yourself questioned Donald Trump’s mental state of mind in September of 2019 when you stated to CNN I quote, “If our Presidency is not in good shape, then our country is not in good shape.” And Mr. Secretary, I could not agree with you more,’ Nehls began.

‘Inflation is at 9.1 percent, gas prices are through the roof, our adversaries are exploiting our weaknesses across the globe, and our southern border is non-existent. This administration puts the American people last.’ 

To illustrate his point about Biden’s mental acuity, the Texas sheriff-turned-lawmaker had his staff display a poster of the president alongside the Easter bunny during the White House’s recent annual egg roll event.

Biden had been mocked by critics for appearing to be guided amongst the crowd by the bunny, who was likely a White House staffer. 

‘Sadly, he [Biden] shakes hands with ghosts and imaginary people, he falls off bicycles, even at the White House Easter Celebration, the Easter bunny had to guide him back into his safe place,’ Nehls said.

Buttigieg shot back: ‘First of all, I’m glad to have a president who can ride a bicycle.’

He added that the question was ‘insulting.’ 

The 79-year-old president briefly had alarm bells raised about his health last month when he fell off his bicycle in front of a group of reporters.

Asked if that and other gaffes warranted the 25th Amendment – which would remove the president from office via a majority Cabinet vote and the vice president’s approval – Buttigieg answered, ‘Of course not.’

‘The President of the United States is as vigorous a colleague or boss as I have ever had the pleasure of working with,’ he said. 

The 25th Amendment was last discussed by Trump officials in the wake of the January 6 Capitol attack, members of the ex-president’s Cabinet have since confirmed.

‘You [Buttigieg] yourself questioned Donald Trump’s mental state of mind in September of 2019 when you stated to CNN I quote, “If our Presidency is not in good shape, then our country is not in good shape.” And Mr. Secretary, I could not agree with you more,’ Nehls said

Questions over Biden’s fitness for office have been mounting recently, particularly in the wake of a new poll that shows more than six in 10 Democrat voters who answered a New York Times/Siena College survey said they would prefer a new nominee other than Biden to run for president in 2024.

The latest high-profile doubts came from Bill Clinton’s former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

Reich, who served in Clinton’s Cabinet from 1993 until 1997, wrote an op-ed in The Guardian on Sunday bluntly titled, ‘As a 76-year-old let me say: Joe Biden is too old to run again.’ 

‘It’s not death that’s the worrying thing about a second Biden term,’ he wrote of the 79-year-old commander-in-chief. ‘It’s the dwindling capacities that go with aging.’

If the president runs and wins a second term, he would be nearing 82 when taking the oath of office – surpassing his previously held record for the oldest person ever sworn in.