Republican lawmakers are pointing the finger at Vice President Kamala Harris for what they describe as a concerted effort to cover up President Joe Biden’s decline in mental acuity .
Biden’s exit from the presidential race following weeks of escalating pressure from Democrats has fueled GOP calls for his resignation from office over assertions he’s no longer up to the task while simultaneously putting Harris under the microscope as she seeks her party's nomination.
“She's been part of the effort to gaslight the country,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), a centrist Republican up for reelection in a Biden district, told the Washington Examiner. “So many of my colleagues knew full well that he was having challenges. And it wasn't until it became apparent to the American people did any of them even say anything. Obviously, she knows full well the challenges he was dealing with, and I think she has a responsibility to come clean about that.”
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) recalled separate encounters with Biden years apart at the White House, one in 2022 and another earlier this year in January.
“Totally different person. And the cognitive decline had gone down progressively,” McCaul said. “I can't imagine that people in the inner circle didn't see that. They protected him, there’s no question. I don't know what [Harris’s] role was in all that. But they knew that there wasn't — I think the debate kind of exposed them, and then everybody knew.”
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN), a Freedom Caucus member, recounted a similar recent experience with Biden, in which he said the president was “unable to carry on a complex conversation with me” after the State of the Union address in January.
“I don’t know to what extent [Harris] played a role,” Ogles said. “It’s scary to think that he’s the leader of the free world. Clearly, he’s not. This is Weekend at Bernie’s: White House edition. You got Pelosi on one side, you got Obama on the other side, escorting him out of the building.”
The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) questioned when Harris began to notice a change in Biden's daily behavior, given her proximity to him.
"I think Kamala Harris is front and center in that," Scalise told the Washington Examiner. "She's been closer to President Biden than anybody. And it does beg the question, when did Kamala Harris start recognizing the president's cognitive decline, and why didn't she do something about it?"
Democrats have quickly coalesced around Harris, including Biden. Her campaign operations have quickly gone into overdrive with a little more than three months until Americans head to the polls. More conservative Republicans are counterprogramming, in part, by saying Harris should have already invoked the 25th Amendment to remove Biden from office.
“She's complicit. She's hid it from the country as vice president,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said. “She's responsible for the 25th Amendment. She should have invoked it a long time ago.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) accused Harris of “lying to the public about his condition.”
“I don't know how you can trust Kamala Harris to run the government when she was part of the conspiracy to operate the Weekend at Bernie's presidency,” he said.
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Other Republicans suggested Harris was playing a natural role of protecting Biden as his vice president and that there was little expectation for her to handle the situation any differently.
“She’s not going to knock her boss,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) said. “He’s the one that brought [her] to the table.”
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