This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A statement has been issued that Joe Biden is out of the race for the Democratic Party's nomination for president, which he already had won.
But he's still in control of the White House, the nation's military, and its nuclear football containing launch codes for its weaponry.
And that's a "frightening message" the Democrat party is sending the world, according to a long list of prominent commentary voices.
It is Miranda Devine, a prominent New York Post commentator, who said, "We're still stuck with Joe Biden as president for six months. He might have passed the political torch to VP Kamala Harris but he still has control of the nuclear football. Or maybe Dr. Jill and Hunter do. Either way, it's a frightening message to send to the world: The U.S. president is too cognitively impaired to run for re-election in November but he's staying on as commander in chief until January."
She pointed out that just a week ago Biden was "digging in his heels" about staying in the race, but charged there was a "deal" struck as "Nancy Pelosi and the Obamacans ratcheted up the pain."
"Of course," she wrote, "'working something out' for his benefit has always been the point with Biden, whether it's his donors providing grace and favor jobs at inflated prices for his wayward son and other family members, or President Xi Jinping blessing Hunter's lucrative business venture after he flew into Beijing with dad on Air Force Two."
She said Biden remaining in office gives him plenty of time "to orchestrate pardons for Hunter and his brother Jim and whomever else in the family is in legal trouble."
Further, "You can bet Air Force One and Camp David will be working overtime for as many dream holidays and bucket list wishes for as many extended family members as he can squeeze in. Perhaps another ancestral trip to Ireland or Rome for a last blessing from his favorite pope. It will be one long victory lap."
Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley explained that Biden is "effectively saying that, in addition to being allegedly too diminished to be prosecuted, he is too diminished to run for the office that he currently holds," the question is why he is remaining in office.
"The Democratic Party essentially created its political version of the 25th Amendment in forcing Biden off the ticket. This decision was about as voluntary as leaving a building by way of a window on the 46th floor. That is particularly the case when you are thrown out of the window by your closest friends."
This all leaves the question of why he is remaining in office.
"The Democratic establishment has two equally unappealing options. First, it could be argued that Biden was withdrawing out of recognition that he is no longer politically viable. But that makes a mockery out of the democratic process. Millions of people went through the primary elections to select him as their nominee. Now he would be set aside and replaced by a vote of the party establishment like a shift in the Russian politburo. Second, it could admit that Biden was, as stated for weeks in the media and by figures like Special Counsel Robert Hur, greatly diminished both mentally and physically."
But that, he said, could trigger a 25th Amendment fight over that provision's path to put aside a president because of incompetency.
He pointed out that Democrats, in their lawfare against President Donald Trump, already had suggested creating their panel "to force" Trump out of office.
"The question is whether Congress will now make this decision to warrant an investigation."
He said Biden's "unprecedented" decision to leave after effectively winning the nomination, should "warrant a House investigation into Biden's continuing capacity to serve in an office that he no longer believes he can run to occupy after January 2025."
Commentator Brianna Lyman at the Federalist said if Biden cannot run, he cannot remain in office.
"If Biden cannot run for office due to the severe cognitive decline displayed during the debate, then dropping out of the nomination process isn't enough. If Biden is too senile to run for president, he is too senile to remain in office," she wrote.
"If Biden is permitted to remain in office for the next six months, then the 'party of Democracy' just signaled that 14 million primary voters engaged in nothing more than perfunctory democracy. That is, one in which votes mean naught because a handful of D.C. elites have the ultimate say when their power suddenly is put on the line."
She said Democrats defended his cognitive powers, and hid the evidence otherwise, for years because Biden wasn't a political liability then.
"The debate changed that. Suddenly Democrats were forced to answer for Biden's mental acuity. But explaining away a man's inability to put together a coherent sentence, his repeated 'forgetfulness,' or even his ability to walk off a stage unassisted was a question that had one answer: Biden is incapable of carrying out the duties he sought to continue to do for another four years. But if Biden's incapacitation means he can't be a successful nominee, he certainly cannot remain in office."
Margot Cleveland, also at the Federalist, explained while the announcement came from Biden, "Left unsaid will be the fact that party insiders and Democrat mega-donors forced Biden to step down out of fear Trump would win the presidency again."
She explained, "The public spectacle of the president's cognitive impairment prompted Democrats to conclude Biden could not win reelection, and the conclusion that Biden could not win reelection led to his withdrawal from the race. But why Biden bowed out as the Democrat candidate — or why Biden or others claim he did — isn't significant."
She said what matters is "that Biden lacks a stable mental capacity. That matters because a man lacking in lucidity, even if only at times, cannot discharge the powers and duties of the office of president."
And, "Biden's withdrawal as a candidate is not enough; he must resign from the presidency, or the cabinet must invoke the 25th Amendment. Democrats and their media lapdogs may pretend otherwise, acting as if Biden merely lacks the stamina to campaign and that his frailty does not affect his ability to serve as commander-in-chief. But during the debate, Biden wasn't lacking in vigor. He was lacking in lucidity."
She cited the "numerous" instances "in which Americans saw a cognitively challenged president. Add to those facts Special Counsel Robert Hur's conclusion that Biden would 'likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.' Hur's report further detailed Biden's shocking memory lapses and recommended against charging the president for mishandling classified documents. And Attorney General Merrick Garland's refusal to release the audio recording of Hur's interviews with Biden only cements the perception that the tape is even worse than the special counsel portrayed."
She warned," Now, with the president out of the race, reporters will revert to covering for him. Americans, though, know the truth — that President Biden is mentally incapacitated. Sadly, so do our enemies."
