Biden has 153 more days in his presidential term, but critics question who’s really in charge
Biden makes joke about Harris as president, says he has ‘a lot to do’ in remaining months in office
President Biden at the Democratic National Convention on Monday said he would finish the remaining five months of his term.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, said Monday that President Biden at this point is “basically president in name only.”
“Tonight, we are going to hear from President Joe Biden, who at this point is basically president in name only,” Shanahan said in a video shared to X.
“You know, no matter what your opinion is of Joe Biden, if you love him or if you hate him or don’t really care, you have to realize that something feels very wrong about how the Democratic Party ran a full core pressure campaign to get him out of office after he won 14-15 million votes in the primaries,” she said.
“Isn’t it strange how he bowed out because he didn’t feel like he could serve another four years, but somehow he’s OK to serve four more months as we face historic inflation, debt and war? Any impartial observer can look at that and realize the DNC machine did what they always do. They pushed someone out they couldn’t successfully puppeteer,” Shanahan said. “So much for defending democracy.”
At the Democratic National Convention on Monday night, Biden said he had “a lot to do” in the remaining five months of his presidential term.
Comparing himself to Democrat presidential nominee Vice President Harris, Biden said, “Like many of our best presidents, she was also vice president. That’s a joke.”
BIDEN SPEECH DELAYED UNTIL AFTER PRIMETIME
Biden appeared to be referencing how he served as former President Obama’s vice president.
“But she’ll be a president our children could look up to,” Biden continued. “She’ll be a president respected by world leaders because she already is. She’ll be a president we can all be proud of. And she will be a historic president who puts her stamp on America’s future. This will be the first presidential election since Jan. 6th.”
“Selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made before I became, when I became our nominee, and it was the best decision I made my whole career,” Biden said.
Vice President Harris and President Biden are shown at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
X users on Monday questioned whether Biden is truly in charge.
“Are we just forgetting that Joe Biden is still in office?” wrote Jerry Wayne, a Michigan autoworker who went viral for confronting Biden about gun control on the 2020 campaign trail.
“Joe Biden is still the President for 154 more days. Pray for America,” Fox News contributor and former Trump campaign operative Steve Cortes wrote on X.
At the DNC, Biden stressed that his term is not over: “Folks, I’ve got five months left in my presidency. I’ve got a lot to do. I intend to get it done.”
Regardless of the outcome of the election in November, a new president would not, under traditional circumstances, be inaugurated until Jan. 20, 2025. As of Tuesday, that means Biden has 153 days left of his four-year term. The 25th Amendment of the Constitution stipulates that if the president dies, resigns or is removed from office, the vice president automatically becomes president.
After Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Republican nominee and former President Trump in June, Democrat lawmakers and donors pressured the 81-year-old president to step aside from the race amid concern that his age and mental fitness would destroy the party’s chances of holding onto the White House and Senate as well as reclaiming the House in November.
President Biden speaks during the first day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago on Aug. 19, 2024. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
In a clip shared by RNC Research, Biden stood at the podium during a stage test earlier Monday afternoon at the United Center while reporters shouted questions.
One reporter asked, “Donald Trump claims that you were pushed out, put from the top of the ticket, and this amounts to a coup from your party. What do you make of these claims?”
Biden started to answer, but his response was quiet and barely audible, so the reporter pressed, “His what?” The president then went silent, waved her off and other reporters began asking different questions.
