Rick Scott Floats Invoking 25th Amendment, Demands Bicameral Probe on Biden's Afghan Pullout
© AP Photo / Nick Ut
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US President Joe Biden declared earlier on Monday that he stands "squarely behind" his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, asserting that the alternative would have been to initiate a "third decade" of war. The Pentagon argued the current Kabul situation "would have been difficult for anybody to predict," despite the Taliban's publicized gains.
As top Republicans such as former US President Donald Trump blast Biden for the collapse of the Afghan government, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) took his critique of the US president a bit further and suggested it may be time for Biden to be removed from his position.
"After the disastrous events in Afghanistan, we must confront a serious question: Is Joe Biden capable of discharging the duties of his office or has time come to exercise the provisions of the 25th Amendment?" he tweeted, quoting an August 12 post in which he ripped Biden for Taliban gains, record-high US-Mexico border encounters and spending.
After the disastrous events in Afghanistan, we must confront a serious question: Is Joe Biden capable of discharging the duties of his office or has time come to exercise the provisions of the 25th Amendment? https://t.co/l1bFrUdZH9
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) August 16, 2021
The 25th Amendment of the US Constitution details that the vice president and a majority of the cabinet must agree that the US president is unfit to conduct their duties. The matter is then sent to Congress, where it must be approved with a two-thirds vote in both legislative chambers.
This has yet to be a mechanism used to remove a US president from office, despite its repeated mention during then-US President Donald Trump's time in the White House.
Scott, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a call to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), demanding a bipartisan, bicameral investigation on the dialogue and series of events associated with Biden's "careless" pullout of US troops from Afghanistan.
The US senator from Florida argued that Schumer and Pelosi "must put partisan politics aside and demand accountability from the Biden administration."
"This failure is unacceptable, especially following 20 years of war that has taken the lives of more than 2,300 American service members and wounded more than 20,000," he concluded. "The American people deserve answers."
Fresh off floating Biden's removal via the 25th Amendment, Sen. Rick Scott urges Biden to approve Ron DeSantis' request for disaster relief. pic.twitter.com/Q268phiuja
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) August 16, 2021
Interestingly enough, shortly after questioning Biden's level of competence, Scott and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) penned a joint letter requesting the US president make an emergency declaration for Florida over Tropical Storm Fred. The tropical storm made landfall on Monday.
Biden pushed back against his critics in a Monday speech delivered from the White House, asserting that "American troops cannot — and should not — be fighting in a war, and dying in a war, that the Afghans are not willing to fight for themselves."
He also dismissed claims that US forces "gave up and fled the country."
