Sen. Tillis: ‘For the sake of the country, Biden should step aside’

(CNN) — Watching last week’s CNN presidential debate, my initial reaction was profound sadness. We watched our commander in chief, President Joe Biden, repeatedly lose his train of thought, utter incoherencies and project lethargy.

It was painful, and I truly feel bad for Biden. Cognitive and physical decline is a normal part of the aging process for many people. But displaying what appeared to be that decline in front of tens of millions of Americans is most certainly not normal. Especially when your day job is serving as the nation’s commander in chief.

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, who admittedly loves Biden, also acknowledged the painful reality that “if he were CEO, and he turned in a performance like that, would any corporation in America keep him on as CEO?”

Of course, no company would keep him on, and that’s why my lasting reaction to the debate was profound concern for what comes next. Biden’s disastrous performance doesn’t just raise questions about whether he is fit to lead our nation for the next four years, it raises questions about whether he is fit to lead us for another seven months.

Consider that Biden was preparing and practicing for this debate for nearly a week. Despite all the prep, Biden’s showing on stage has prompted grave concerns from both sides of the aisle.

Throughout his presidency, the White House has repeatedly tried to shut down any discussion over Biden’s fitness to serve. The debate last week now makes that discussion a necessity.

If Biden cannot speak coherently or articulate his policies, and is unfit to perform after nearly a week of preparation, how will he perform when America is truly tested by a national security crisis, the kind of historic, high-stakes situations his predecessors have been confronted with?

Every member of Congress and every member of Biden’s cabinet should be on record answering the following questions:

Does Biden have the stamina and clear-headed judgment that was needed to defuse the Cuban missile crisis and prevent a nuclear war with the Soviet Union?

Does Biden have the strength and resoluteness that were needed to respond to Imperial Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor?

Does Biden have the vigor that was needed to hunt down and annihilate the terrorists who attacked our nation on 9/11?

Could Biden lead our nation through a national security crisis on two hours of sleep for weeks on end?

Do you have confidence Biden would make the right choice if his generals were to turn to him in the Situation Room and ask him to make a decision that has life-or-death consequences for Americans?

Our nation’s leaders should be forced to answer those questions because the dictators of China, Russia and Iran undoubtedly see the same Biden that Americans saw on that stage in Atlanta.

Our adversaries could view Biden’s seeming cognitive and physical decline as an opportunity to expedite their goal of ending America’s status as the world’s preeminent superpower.

That makes our world far more dangerous and Americans less safe. It might flash the green light for our adversaries — in China, Russia, Iran and elsewhere — to test Biden to see how many steps he’s really lost.

Keep in mind that there were already question marks hanging over Biden’s judgment well before he became president. As the Obama-Biden administration’s Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote in his book, published in 2014, “I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” His judgment is certainly not getting better.

I believe Biden is a decent man who cares about the country. However, time catches up with everyone. It’s clear that Biden’s decline is more dire than people realized and the White House has not been as truthful nor transparent as it should have been about that fact.

Biden is unfit to continue serving as leader of the free world. While he seems to be well on track to lose the election in November, a lot can still go wrong between now and January 20, 2025.

For the sake of the country, Biden should step aside. If he is unaware of his own unfitness to continue serving, his cabinet should consider invoking the 25th Amendment, in which the cabinet can vote to transfer powers and authorities from the president to the vice president. Such a historic move would be in our nation’s best interest, serving as a vital deterrent to America’s enemies during this increasingly dangerous time.

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