Testing the Legitimacy of Mr. Biden’s Acts

In several of my last columns I have suggested that former President Joe Biden lacked the cognitive capabilities to execute a variety of recent executive orders that essentially and purposefully interfere with President Donald Trump’s ability to execute the authority of the Office of the President of the United States. And now there is proof positive validating my concern. A January 18, 2025 article in the New York Post noted:

“President Biden had no clue whether or not he signed a critical executive order during a conversation last year with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson,  who admitted he left the meeting fearing the nation is in ‘serious trouble.’

“An addled Biden insisted to the Louisiana lawmaker that he never issued the order to freeze new liquid natural gas export permits — even though he signed off on it less than a month earlier.

“Johnson told the Free Press’ Bari Weiss he didn’t believe Biden was lying, but was left to believe the then-81-year-old leader ‘genuinely didn’t know what he had signed.’

“The troubling encounter happened in the Oval Office in early 2024, when the two met to discuss the latest aid package for Ukraine.

“Afterwards, Johnson asked Biden why he had inked an executive order pausing new permits for American liquid natural gas export to European allies — a crucial issue for his constituents in the Bayou State, which in 2023, handled 61% of the nation’s LNG exports, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

“’Why would you do that? Cause you understand we just talked about Ukraine, you understand you are fueling Vladimir Putin’s war machine, because they gotta get their gas from him,’ Johnson said he told Biden.

“Biden was stunned, Johnson said.

“’I didn’t do that,’ the president said, according to Johnson.

“’Sir, you paused it, I know. I have the export terminals in my state. I talked to those people in my state, I’ve talked to those people this morning, this is doing massive damage to our economy, national security,’ Johnson said he told the commander-in-chief.

Biden continued to deny that he froze the exports — and then remembered he signed the executive order, which he said was simply to study the effects of the fuel.

“’I walked out of that meeting with fear and loathing because I thought, ‘We are in serious trouble—who is running the country?’ Johnson said.

“’Like, I don’t know who put the paper in front of him, but he didn’t know,’ he said.”

This is serious business. This is not just another assault on Mr. Biden. The world has watched the cognitive decline of Mr. Biden for several years. It has been whispered in the halls of both the legislative and executive branches as well as the diplomatic channels of the world and even the green rooms of the mainstream media. Starting at least as early as the beginning of 2024 people began to wonder aloud who was actually in charge of the country – Mr. Biden or some cabal of senior staffers? Mr. Biden’s public appearances were tightly crafted to minimize his exposure in fear that spontaneous conversation would reinforce the rumors of Mr. Biden’s decline. His public statements were always from teleprompter written by others. While Mr. Biden had mastered the art of using the teleprompters years ago, his mastery began to dissolve. He became so dependent on the script and so ignorant of what he was actually saying, that he often read “stage instructions” contained alongside of the text. And of more recent vintage he began to hurry through the script – after all they were just words to say without understanding their import. In doing so, Mr. Biden’s voice would drop to the disinterested monotone that most of us use when reading aloud from something. He would lose his place. slur over words, ramble while he tried to catch up and which then increased his scrambling of thoughts and words.

The United States Constitution provides for just such an instance and commands the Vice-President – with the majority of either the Cabinet or either house – to advise the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House of the infirmities of the President. But Kamala Harris did not. The only other avenue was the impeachment of Mr. Biden and that process had become so politicized by the Democrats in the flailing about in pursuit of Mr. Trump that it was impossible to pursue. Ms. Harris held the only key and she failed to act.

But that isn’t the end of the story. The law presumes that a person has the authority and the acuity to act. There is no question that Mr. Biden was the duly elected President of the United States and as such had the authority to act within the limitation of the United States Constitution. But Mr. Biden’s acuity is and was questionable. One or more of Mr. Biden’s decisions – particularly those involving the expenditures of public funds – can be challenged on the basis of diminished capacity. It is the same process and the same standard as those challenging a decision of an elderly person who has succumbed to a fraudster or greedy relative. And the result is precisely the same. Upon a finding of diminished capacity the transaction can be set aside and be void ab initio.

Mr. Biden’s rush to spend money, grant pardons, forgive debts and extend labor contracts are all subject to challenge – starting with his decision to restore $16 Billion of Iranian money frozen previously for a variety of unlawful acts. In pursuing it the cause of action should be against the Office of the President and not Mr. Biden personally. Even though he no longer holds public office he is likely immune from such lawsuits because they were performed during the time of his presidency. Rather the action should be against the Office of the President which has the added benefit of putting Mr. Trump and the revised Department of Justice in charge of the litigation. There should be no stalling or refusing to comply as was the case for four years under Mr. Biden. The files of the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department and probably the medical files of the White House attending physicians would be open for inspection to determine 1) Mr. Biden’s acuity at the time of executing orders and 2) those who participated in assisting Mr. Biden to execute those orders, including their knowledge of Mr. Biden’s acuity. If Mr. Biden is found to be incompetent at those times the actions will be voided. If those assisting Mr. Biden in making those decision knew of his diminished, they should be charged with any of a variety of crimes up to and including treason if the actions in question involved a hostile foreign government.

The reason that this is so important is that this is not the first time it has happened. Previously former President Woodrow Wilson. History Net summarized:

AT 11 A.M. ON MONDAY, October 6, 1919, a grim Secretary of State Robert Lansing gazed across the table at nine men seated in the White House Cabinet Room. The members of President Woodrow Wilson’s cabinet had come, at Lansing’s call, to an unprecedented meeting. Historically, the cabinet did not convene without the president’s approval. However, circumstances demanded action, and no department head had balked. The president’s chair, at the head of the table, remained empty.

“Four days earlier, Wilson had ‘taken ill,’ as the newspapers were phrasing it, and since then had been incommunicado. Washington is a rumor factory, and the capital was jittering with dark talk. No one knew if Woodrow Wilson ever again could do the job voters twice had elected him to do. Lansing, who had not seen his boss since early September, suspected the worst about the president’s condition. Lansing thought the cabinet should squarely face a topic that days earlier would have been unthinkable—transferring power from a disabled president.

“For the cabinet, Lansing, 54, had two questions: who was to decide if the president was disabled, and, if so, should the cabinet, which so far had done nothing, run the executive branch in Wilson’s absence? Lansing suggested that Vice President Thomas R. Marshall, who was elsewhere in Washington that day, might have to fill the void.

“The official cabinet meeting answered neither question. Ending the session but requesting that his fellow secretaries remain, Lansing summoned Dr. Cary T. Grayson, the president’s personal physician. Lansing and colleagues pressed Grayson for details on his patient’s condition. Genially sidestepping, the doctor painted Wilson in rosy tones. The president’s mind was “not only clear but very active,” the doctor declared. All that was afflicting Woodrow Wilson, Grayson claimed, was a touch of indigestion and “a depleted nervous system.”

“Lansing, an attorney who had served Wilson through the recent world war and during the peace talks at Versailles, knew when he was being snowed. Grayson, 40, had made Lansing’s antennae vibrate by “carefully avoiding giving any definite information,” Lansing wrote later. However, the secretary of state had no concrete information with which to challenge the medical practitioner, who protested that Lansing lacked authority to call a cabinet meeting without the chief executive’s knowledge.

“For the cabinet, Lansing, 54, had two questions: who was to decide if the president was disabled, and, if so, should the cabinet, which so far had done nothing, run the executive branch in Wilson’s absence? Lansing suggested that Vice President Thomas R. Marshall, who was elsewhere in Washington that day, might have to fill the void.

“The official cabinet meeting answered neither question. Ending the session but requesting that his fellow secretaries remain, Lansing summoned Dr. Cary T. Grayson, the president’s personal physician. Lansing and colleagues pressed Grayson for details on his patient’s condition. Genially sidestepping, the doctor painted Wilson in rosy tones. The president’s mind was “not only clear but very active,” the doctor declared. All that was afflicting Woodrow Wilson, Grayson claimed, was a touch of indigestion and “a depleted nervous system.”

“Lansing, an attorney who had served Wilson through the recent world war and during the peace talks at Versailles, knew when he was being snowed. Grayson, 40, had made Lansing’s antennae vibrate by “carefully avoiding giving any definite information,” Lansing wrote later. However, the secretary of state had no concrete information with which to challenge the medical practitioner, who protested that Lansing lacked authority to call a cabinet meeting without the chief executive’s knowledge.

“The awkward two-hour meeting ended in a whimper, with Secretary of War Newton D. Baker assuring Grayson that the cabinet had been meeting innocently to address unfinished business. Baker asked the physician to convey the cabinet’s best wishes to Wilson.

“Not knowing Wilson’s condition or prognosis, the cabinet—and the entire nation—spent the next 17 months paddling in a sea of hearsay, whispers, and speculation.*

And again in the latter part of President Ronald Reagan’s presidency there were allegations of mental decline which were known and covered up by Nancy Reagan and a variety of aides and advisors. The New York Times opined later – after Mr. Reagan’s terms as President and his announcement in 1994 that he had Alzheimer’s disease wrote:

“Throughout his years in Washington, Mr. Reagan had been portrayed by many pundits and political opponents as absent-minded, inattentive, incurious, even lazy. And his Presidency was marked by a succession of very public mental stumbles — most notably his dismal performance in the first debate of the 1984 campaign, and his confused and forgetful accounting of his role in the Iran-contra affair.

“But even with the hindsight of Mr. Reagan’s diagnosis, his four main White House doctors say they never detected any evidence that his forgetfulness was more than just that. His mental competence in office, they said in a series of recent interviews, was never in doubt. Indeed, they pointed out, tests of his mental status did not begin to show evidence of the disease until the summer of 1993, more than four years after he left the White House.

”’There was never anything that would raise a question about his ability to function as President,’’ said Dr. Lawrence C. Mohr, one of Mr. Reagan’s physicians in his second term. ‘’Ronald Reagan’s cognitive function, belief structure, judgment, ability to choose between options, behavior and ability to communicate were totally and completely intact.’

It is entirely possible that an examination of Mr. Biden’s mental acuity would render a similar determination although I doubt it. I would note that Mr. Reagan’s condition was never subject to the type of rigorous cross examinations as I have suggest for Mr. Biden. The damage done by Mr. Biden – particularly in the latter halve of his presidency demands examination and remedy.

Mr. Biden has cemented his stature as the worst president in history and added to that he is the most corrupt**. Justice demands that he be held accountable in some fashion

________________________________________

* Much of this, including the comments of the White House physicians seems eerily the same as we have experienced with Mr. Biden.

**I would note that Mr. Bidens llth hour blanket pardons for his family does not end the matter either. I would also note that Mr. Biden’s cleverness in immunizing his family did not extend to his wife Jill Biden. It also exposed all of those family members to testifying against Mr. Biden for his participation in any of their doings because they no longer have Fifth Amendment rights – having been pardoned they cannot claim jeopardy in resisting testimony.