Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday that cabinet members have not discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to impeach President Biden amid a national tribunal over his cognitive status.
Speaking before the House Financial Services Committee, Yellen, 77, suggested there was no need to do that.
Several prominent Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), Publicly urged Asked whether it had been done when Cabinet members were asked to consider the step, Yellen simply replied, “No.”
During her annual testimony on “the state of the international financial system,” she was also asked when she last met with the 81-year-old president and whether he had exhibited any “cognitive decline.”
The Treasury secretary did not say when the two last met, but added that “the president has been very effective in the meetings that I’ve participated in.”
“This includes a number of international conferences that last several hours.”
Yellen and Vice President Kamala Harris have both publicly supported Biden, but some leading Democrats have called on him to drop out of the race after he stammered, lost his train of thought and stared blankly during last month’s debate.
The 25th Amendment to the Constitution allows the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet to decide that the President is unable to fulfill his duties and replace him with the Vice President.
The sitting president has the right to challenge the measure in Congress, but he would need a two-thirds majority in both houses to retain power.
Since its ratification, the 25th Amendment has never been cited to remove a sitting U.S. president, but it has been invoked from time to time by critics of the commander in chief.
For example, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) proposed invoking the 25th Amendment in 2021 to defeat former President Donald Trump’s cabinet, but the proposal ultimately failed to achieve that goal.
Johnson argued earlier Tuesday that the Biden administration should consider the 25th.
“I ask my cabinet members to do some soul searching,” Johnson said at a news conference. “Just as we all want to do our duty to do what’s best for the American people, I want them to do their duty. This is a crucial moment.”
“I will be discussing this with my colleagues at cabinet level,” he continued. “We will be waiting to see what action they take. This is a serious situation.”
An unusually sparse media presence was seen at Johnson’s news conference, with most of the reporters gathered about a half-mile down the street outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters, where House Democrats were debating the president.
In the debate’s aftermath, six House Democrats came forward and publicly called on Biden to hand over the reins as the presidential nominee to someone else.
During the meeting, Democratic lawmakers expressed concern about the situation and then tried to downplay the drama when reporters swarmed them after the meeting.
Biden wrote to Democratic lawmakers on Monday saying he’s not going anywhere.
“The question of how to proceed has been debated for well over a week now,” Biden wrote in the letter. “It is time to end it. We have one job: to defeat Donald Trump.”
Later, in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” which Biden said is one of his favorite shows, he suggested Democrats are not afraid to challenge him at the Democratic National Convention.
Biden publicly claimed he was “exhausted” during the debate and that he wouldn’t have run if he didn’t believe he could do the job with all his “heart and soul.”
