In the final stretch of President Joe Biden’s administration, serious questions emerged — not just about the political direction of the White House, but about the basic functionality of the presidency itself. New reporting, including from former Biden cabinet officials speaking to Jake Tapper, reveals something deeply unsettling: by late 2023, the president had essentially become inaccessible to his own Cabinet.
Let’s be clear: This is not a partisan critique, nor an attempt to sensationalize. It's a matter of common sense and constitutional responsibility.
The Constitution Provides a Solution for Presidential Incapacity
The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1967, was designed to ensure continuity of government in the event a president is incapacitated — mentally or physically — and unable to fulfill the duties of the office. Section 4 is the most serious provision, allowing the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare the president unfit, thus temporarily transferring power to the vice president.
Here’s the critical language:
“Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”
This clause isn’t theoretical. It’s not a "last resort" that's never meant to be used. It’s a safety valve for precisely the kind of situation described by Biden’s own Cabinet: a president who is cognitively declining, who is shielded from advisors, who ceases to participate in governance, and whose ability to process information is so diminished that others are effectively running the presidency behind a curtain.
Disappearing President, Disengaged Cabinet
According to Tapper’s reporting, Biden’s Cabinet members describe a president increasingly withdrawn from decision-making and day-to-day governance. One secretary said that, after 2023, they rarely saw him. Others said they stopped briefing him directly and instead routed information through White House aides, who would later “brief the president” in private. One secretary recounted a rare meeting where Biden appeared “disoriented” and “out of it,” with his mouth agape — hardly the picture of a man running the most powerful office in the world.
Even more telling: from October 2, 2023, to September 20, 2024, Biden held no in-person cabinet meetings. In the history of the modern presidency, this is unprecedented. The president wasn't just cutting back on public appearances or media interviews — he was effectively cutting off the only people who are constitutionally empowered to remove him from office if necessary.
Was this an intentional strategy? Some Cabinet members now suggest it was. One said there was a “deliberate strategy by the White House to have him meet with as few people as necessary.” Another pointed out that top aides were “shielding him in every meeting.”
Shielding the president from his own Cabinet isn't just a matter of palace intrigue — it's a subversion of constitutional checks and balances. If these reports are accurate, we weren’t watching a functioning presidency — we were witnessing an end-run around the Constitution.
Where Was the Courage?
It's worth asking: What were these Cabinet members waiting for?
When the president is so out of it that he's no longer accessible to the very officials meant to monitor his fitness for office, then the 25th Amendment isn't just an option — it's an obligation. These were not anonymous staffers or political rivals raising alarms. These were senior members of the administration — people with the authority to act.
Yes, it's difficult. Yes, invoking the 25th Amendment would have been politically explosive. But avoiding difficult decisions is not an excuse for inaction — especially when the functioning of the presidency and the security of the country are at stake.
The Real Cost of Silence
The fact that this reporting is coming out now — long after the president has announced he won't seek reelection — should trouble every American. The president of the United States is not a ceremonial figure. He commands the armed forces, sets foreign policy, signs (or vetoes) legislation, and can launch nuclear weapons. If those decisions were being made by unelected staff, not the president himself, then voters were misled about who was actually running the country.
The Cabinet’s silence during this period wasn't loyalty — it was abdication. The 25th Amendment is not a tool of convenience. It is a vital guardrail against presidential incapacity. In Biden’s final years, it should have been used. The question now is whether future Cabinets will have the courage to act when the Constitution calls on them to do so.
If not, then what’s the point of having it at all?
Conclusion
The Biden administration may have limped to the finish line, but that’s not a model we can afford to repeat. The nation deserves a functioning executive — not a shadow presidency. If the 25th Amendment is to mean anything, it has to be more than a footnote. It must be invoked when the moment demands it.
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