President Biden’s incoherency and fatigue at last night’s CNN Presidential Debate has left Democratic insiders questioning whether President Biden should seek a second term in office. But a more urgent issue is the president’s ability to continue his first term in office. This guide explains the constitutional mechanism for Biden to be replaced as the sitting president.

What does the Constitution say about presidential succession?

The 25th Amendment to the Constitution spells out the presidential order of succession.

The first three scenarios deal with the possibility of death, resignation, or illness. It is through these sections that Vice Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Gerald Ford each became President of the United States. The fourth and most talked about section in the 25th Amendment provides a mechanism to remove a president without their consent. 

It last became part of the national conversation in the aftermath of the January 6 riots, when some cabinet members reportedly discussed removing former President Trump from office.

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How would replacing the president work?

According to the relevant section, these steps would take place: 

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Are there any signs that it will be invoked?

No. There is no reporting that anyone in Biden’s inner circle or the White House is considering such a move. 

Elsewhere, voices across the political spectrum have raised the possibility that Biden is not capable of remaining in office.

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That includes figures ranging from Johnson to comedian Jon Stewart.

What if President Biden dies or resigns?

As above, the 25th amendment also deals with succession in the event of death or resignation. In both cases, Vice President Harris would become President of the United States.

Presidential debates changed television.

“You want to put a lot of new Supreme Court justices – radical left!” hollered former President Trump at President Biden during the 2020 debate.

“Will you shut up man?” implored Mr. Biden.

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And television changed politics.

“It’s easy to say, ‘Oh, you’ve got to look good on television. Therefore, if you don’t, you’re doomed.’ It’s not quite that easy,” said Walter Podrazik, television curator at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. “You have to learn how to speak directly through the medium that most people understand. They know television as well as any politician does because they watch it all the time.”

That was the problem facing President Biden in Thursday night’s debate with former President Trump.

Mr. Trump fared better because he appeared engaged. Vigorous. President Biden looked pasty and out of it.

It doesn’t matter what Mr. Biden represents or what his policies are.

When it comes to the debate, you must excel at television.

Debates imprinted the importance of live performance onto the debate genre.

That mixed reality TV with politics – long before reality TV was a thing.

“I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience,” quipped a 73-year-old President Ronald Reagan during a 1984 debate with former Vice President Walter Mondale, then a youthful 56.

“They brought us whole binders full of women,” said 2012 Republican nominee and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) at one of that year’s debates with former President Obama.

2016 Democratic nominee and former Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., was in the middle of saying something about the Social Security Trust Fund in a debate with Mr. Trump when he fired off this volley.

“Such a nasty woman,” sneered the former President.

Debates also amplify on-screen gaffes.

“There is no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe,” said President Gerald Ford in a debate with future President Jimmy Carter in 1976.

The remark shocked the press corps.

And Cold War Eastern Europe.

However, debates sometimes deliver unexpected humor.

“I’m all ears!” bragged 1992 independent Presidential candidate Ross Perot at a debate with future President Bill Clinton and former President George H.W. Bush.

Perot drew attention to his own features – which stuck out like two taxicab doors, attached to a crew cut.

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Sometimes what’s said isn’t even what most people remember. People easily recall the visual of former President Trump, lurking and then creeping onto the screen behind Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Sometimes viewers recall what a candidate does during the debate.

Former Vice President and 2000 Democratic Presidential nominee Al Gore is remembered for his theatrical sighs of exasperation at various orations from future President George W. Bush.

And then there was Bush 41 in 1992 with Bill Clinton and Perot. All three candidates briefly rested against stools as ABC News Anchor and debate moderator Carole Simpson addressed the audience.

The elder Bush slipped a glance at his wristwatch.

Viewers interpreted that presidential peek as a subliminal cue that Mr. Bush’s time in office was up after one term.

The debate between President Biden and former President Trump marked a sea change in the way American voters experience the forum. Both campaigns worked directly with CNN to develop the debate. It’s the first major alteration to debates since 1988. The campaigns cut the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) out of the action this time.

Otherwise, each of the 33 Presidential or Vice-Presidential debates since 1988 has been under the aegis of the Commission. The CPD created the town hall format where average citizens could pose questions directly to the candidates.

That’s how Illinois power plant worker Ken Bone and his red sweater rose to prominence for a hot second after the 2016 town hall debate.

The CPD also hosted the debates at universities. Such was the case with the first debate on September 25, 1988, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., between then Vice President Bush and then Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis (D).

How they conduct the debates is almost as important as the debates themselves.

“We want free and fair debates. This commission has shown bias,” argued former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on Fox Business in early 2022.

The RNC urged GOP Presidential candidates to refuse to participate in any debate not sanctioned by the GOP.

But the Biden campaign also rejected the Commission on Presidential Debates. It pushed for a June debate and another one in September. The Biden camp also demanded certain rules – including an option for moderators to mute the microphone of a candidate.

In short, both President Biden and former President Trump took their feud outside.

As in outside the Commission on Presidential debates.

Mr. Trump offered a dare to the President.

“I’m calling on crooked Joe to debate any time, any place,” said former President Trump.

President Biden called the bluff of his rival. Even chiding Mr. Trump about what day court was out of session in the defamation trial in New York.

“Make my day, pal. I’ll even do it twice,” said President Biden in a message posted to X. “I hear you’re free on Wednesdays.”

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And so the gamesmanship squeezed out the Commission on Presidential Debates.

“What they wanted to do was what they thought was in the best interests of their candidate,” said Frank Fahrenkopf, who led the CPD since its inception in 1987. “You’ve got two candidates who are unique.”

Fahrenkopf is upset the debates aren’t staged at universities.

“You’ve lost that being on campus. Kids being involved. A Focus on civics,” said Fahrenkopf.

Fahrenkopf also lamented the loss of the town hall meeting.

“The most popular format,” observed Fahrenkopf. “That’s gone.”

What would Ken Bone say?

The first modern Presidential debate unfolded in 1960. The first debate between future President John F. Kennedy and future President Richard Nixon forever fused the presidency and television. It established a paradigm for American politics – and television.

“This is one of the few times in which neither party, neither candidate, controls the environment. And so, if you’re (a voter) trying to decide or if you’re looking for confirmation, then this is when you’ll see it,” said Podrazik of the Museum of Broadcast Communications.

There were no more debates until 1976. The League of Women Voters ran the debates until the Commission on Presidential Debates stepped in for the 1988 cycle.

“What politics did is provided a baseline reality that television can and could embrace,” said Podrazik.

The debate between President Biden and former President Trump was the first without a studio audience since the initial forum in 1960. It was unclear whether future President John F. Kennedy or future President Richard Nixon won that contest.

Nixon sweated. He sported a five-o-clock shadow. Nixon’s knee smarted after he banged it getting out of the limousine arriving at the debate.

Meantime, Kennedy appeared cool and confident.

It’s said that those listening to the radio believed Nixon won. But people watching TV thought Kennedy prevailed.

But that’s debate folklore – even though publishers have printed that chestnut in every American political science textbook for decades.

I challenge you to locate the study or survey which proves the alleged Nixon/Radio versus Kennedy/TV thesis.

But, that old saw goes to show the importance of grasping the complexities of television – compared to raw debate, say on the radio.

And that’s something else the merging of television and politics provides.

“It’s all in pursuit of the audience,” said Podrazik.

And that’s a universal interest between media and politicians.

A Cornell University law professor has called on President Biden’s Cabinet to invoke the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to have him removed from office after his weak debate performance Thursday night, claiming his “cognitive decline” is a “national security threat.” 

“This debate displayed Biden’s severely declined cognitive ability for all the world to see for an hour and a half,” Professor William Jacobson wrote Friday for Legalinsurrection.com. 

“The media cannot claim the live video feed from CNN was a manipulated ‘cheap fake’ — the smear campaign used against those of us who have been pointing out the obvious for over a year, but particularly recently with Biden visibly freezing and zoning out in public appearances.”

He said while Democrats are focused on whether a “mentally diminished Biden” can beat former President Trump in the election, “no honest person who watched last night’s debate can think that Biden mentally is up to the job of being President.” 

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He called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked to have Biden removed from office.

“If I’m China, I’m taking off the shelf the war plans to invade Taiwan,”Jacobson said. “If I’m Iran, I’m breaking out towards a nuclear weapon. If I’m Putin, I’m doubling down on Ukraine and possibly other former Soviet satellites. Can you imagine an emergency situation where immediate military decisions that only a president can make need to be made in seconds or minutes, and the military having to go to diminished Joe for a decision?”

He added Biden’s “cognitive decline is a national security threat of the highest order.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson said something similar Friday. 

“There’s a lot of people asking about the 25th Amendment, invoking the 25th Amendment right now, because this is an alarming situation,” Johnson said. “Our adversaries see the weakness in this White House as we all do. I take no pleasure in saying that. I think this is a very dangerous situation.”

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Under Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, the vice president could assume the presidency if the president is declared unfit for office by the vice president and a majority of the president’s Cabinet or Congress. 

The 25th Amendment was briefly floated near the end of Trump’s presidency following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, which Jacobson called “in bad faith.”

“Only Democrats can act, and they should before it’s too late,” he added. 

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Biden’s debate performance Thursday evening has worried Democrats, and some have even called for him to drop out of the race. 

FIRST ON FOX: Longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur was captured on video Friday losing her patience with a man who asked her whether President Biden should step down following his widely panned CNN debate performance. 

“Excuse me congresswoman, should Joe Biden step down?” A man in the Detroit airport asks Kaptur in video obtained by Fox News Digital. 

The 78-year-old congresswoman ignores the question as she is going up the escalator through the airport, which prompts the man to repeat the question.

After Kaptur doesn’t respond for a second time, she is asked, “Why has the White House been lying about Joe Bidens’ cognitive abilities?”

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Kaptur, who appears to be adjusting her luggage, then stares into the camera before grabbing the phone in the man’s hands as the video cuts out.

“Congresswoman why did you take my phone like that?” Kaptur is asked in a follow-up video as she walks through the airport.

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“What is your name? Kaptur responds looking directly into the camera. “Where do you live?”

“Why are you asking me all these personal questions, congresswoman?” The man responds.

“Because you’re asking me questions,” Kaptur says.

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As the two slowly spin in a circle, Kaptur asks, “Where do you live? Where do you live? What town?”

“I don’t have to tell you that information,” the man says, which causes Kaptur to say, “Then I’m not answering you.”

As Kaptur again starts walking away, the man again asks, “I just want to know, congresswoman, should Joe Biden step down?”

“No,” Kaptur responds before continuing to walk away.

The two continued to go back and forth with Kaptur asking the man why he is “reading questions off that sheet” and “who owns you?”

“Nobody owns me,” the man responds. “I’m just curious on some questions.”

“They own you,” she says as she walks out of the airport doors.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Kaptur campaign spokesperson Alexandra Wilcox said, “It’s one thing to ask a question but an unknown man refusing to identify himself, forcing a camera in the Congresswoman’s personal space is another thing entirely.”

“The man has still not identified himself or the organization for which he works.”

Wilcox continued, “All these politics aside, Congresswoman Kaptur remains fully focused on delivering further transformational federal investment to Northwest Ohio.”

Democrats, particularly those in competitive elections this November, have been facing questions about Biden’s debate performance and specifically where he should step aside in the 2024 race.

Many Democrats have acknowledged that Biden did not have a good night, including former President Barack Obama who said on Friday, “bad debate nights happen.”

Kaptur, who has served in Congress for 21 terms, is facing a tough re-election race in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District that Cook Political Report ranks as a “Democrat Toss Up.”