{"id":2288400,"date":"2024-07-03T04:08:01","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T08:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-an-octogenarian-potus-could-change-control-of-congress\/"},"modified":"2024-07-03T04:13:15","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T08:13:15","slug":"how-an-octogenarian-potus-could-change-control-of-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-an-octogenarian-potus-could-change-control-of-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"How An Octogenarian POTUS Could Change Control Of Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-an-octogenarian-potus-could-change-control-of-congress%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2288400&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In \u200ca <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-quickly-turns-desantis-debate-comment-into-a-campaign-ad\/\" title=\"Biden swiftly transforms DeSantis debate remark into campaign ad.\">recent presidential debate<\/a>,\u2063 Joe Biden&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/payments-company-adyens-shares-plummet-by-a-third-after-earnings-miss\/\" title=\"Adyen&#039;s shares drop 33% due to earnings disappointment.\">performance raised concerns<\/a> among Democrats \u200dabout\u200b the\u200b possibility of renominating him due to signs of \u200cphysical and mental decline.\u2062 The implications of replacing a \u2062president mid-term go beyond worries about Vice\u2063 President\u2064 Kamala Harris assuming the presidency, \u2062as it could \u2064lead to a shift in power in Congress. If something were to happen to Biden during his presidency, Harris would become president, leaving \u2064the vice presidency vacant and creating a 50-50 split in the\u2062 Senate. This would require bipartisan agreement \u200cto confirm a new vice president, leading to \u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-republicans-angry-with-johnson-are-squeamish-about-forcing-another-gavel-fight\/\" title=\"House Republicans are hesitant to engage in another gavel fight with Johnson, expressing their anger towards him\">potential power struggles<\/a> and challenges in passing legislation. The scenario \u2063highlights the complexities and potential consequences of a president&#8217;s health issues impacting the \u2062balance of power in government.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Joe Biden\u2019s performance in the recent presidential debate allowed Democrats to say the quiet part out loud and begin to express public doubts about renominating the current president amid clear signs of his physical and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/politics\/policy\/joe-biden-age-election-2024-8ee15246\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mental decline<\/a>. But those concerns should range far beyond the (understandable) worries about Vice President Kamala Harris ascending to the presidency. <\/p>\n<p>With margins in Congress razor-thin over the past several years, a vacancy in the presidency could alter the balance of power in the legislative branch as well. Few people appear to have spent time going beyond the idea of replacing a president midterm to analyze the implications of confirming a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fox-news-reporter-chad-pergram-reveals-cryptic-email-advising-him-to-learn-process-for-congress-replacing-vice-president\/\" title=\"Fox News Reporter Chad Pergram Reveals \u2018Cryptic Email\u2019 Advising Him to Learn Process for Congress Replacing Vice President\">replacement vice president<\/a>. <\/p>\n<h2><strong>Loss of Party Control<\/strong> <\/h2>\n<p>Consider the situation in January 2021 at the time of Biden\u2019s inauguration. In addition to capturing the presidency, Democrats retained control of the House of Representatives by a narrow 222-seat majority. Because Senate control was a 50-50 tie following the two Georgia runoff elections that month, Democrats regained the majority when Harris took the oath of office as vice president. <\/p>\n<p>At the time of his 2021 inauguration, Biden became the oldest president in American history. If something had happened to his health during the 117th Congress, the consequences would have ranged far beyond putting Harris in the Oval Office. <\/p>\n<p>Section 1 of the 25th Amendment clearly states that upon the death of the president, \u201cthe Vice President shall become President,\u201d meaning Harris would have become chief executive immediately. <\/p>\n<p>But elevating Harris to the presidency would have made the office of vice president vacant \u2014 and in so doing, created a pure 50-50 split in the Senate, where no party has a majority. <\/p>\n<p>The 25th Amendment provides a process for nominating a new vice president, \u201cwho shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.\u201d But in this scenario, with an evenly divided Senate, Democrats would have had to obtain at least one Republican vote to confirm a new vice president. <\/p>\n<p>Under these circumstances, senators would have faced difficult cross-pressures. For national security reasons, leaving the vice presidency vacant for an extended period (i.e., until the next presidential election) would range from risky to dangerous, given growing threats overseas from nations such as China and Iran. But any Senate Republican who voted to confirm Harris\u2019 replacement \u2014 and in a 50-50 Senate, at least one Republican would have had to do just that \u2014 would have come under withering and instantaneous attack for giving Democrats a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/schumer-dems-will-pass-covid-relief-bill-with-or-without-gop\/\" title=\"Schumer: Dems will pass COVID relief bill with or without GOP\">tie-breaking vote<\/a> to use to ram controversial legislation through Congress. <\/p>\n<p>One solution to this dilemma would see Republicans agree to support a consensus nominee for vice president, such as one with broad bipartisan backing, in exchange for some Senate power-sharing agreement that would prevent Democrats from using the new vice president\u2019s tie-breaking vote to ram through a partisan agenda (i.e., the kind they spent much of 2021-22 enacting). But even this scenario would prove dissatisfying to many Democrats, who would doubtless object to Republicans taking advantage of a president\u2019s death for partisan gain, by forcing Democrats to give up control of the Senate. <\/p>\n<h2><strong>\u2018Black Swan\u2019 Event?<\/strong> <\/h2>\n<p>While this type of scenario has not received much if any publicity, it has an air of realism about it. In fact, given the polarization across the country and the tightness of the November election, either party could find themselves facing a situation where only the vice president\u2019s tie-breaking vote keeps them in control of Congress. <\/p>\n<p>Control of the House of Representatives <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cookpolitical.com\/ratings\/house-race-ratings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">appears on a knife edge<\/a>, with either party likely to have a margin of only a few representatives when the next Congress convenes in January. <\/p>\n<p>Although Republicans have more opportunities to pick up Senate seats than Democrats and are virtually assured of picking up the seat of retiring Sen. Joe Manchin, Democrats <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolling.com\/latest-polls\/senate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">appear to have leads<\/a> in most of the other contests, meaning they could hold onto 50 Senate seats, with control of the vice presidency determining which party controls the Senate. <\/p>\n<p>While Donald Trump is several years younger than Biden, he would be older when taking office in January 2025 than Biden was upon entering the presidency in January 2021 and would be older at the end of his term than Biden is today. <\/p>\n<p>Control of the Senate, and unified control of Congress, could come down to which individual occupies the office of vice president. This is a polite way of saying that a decline in the health of the two oldest major-party candidates to run for president, by simultaneously upsetting that partisan balance, could take the country into uncharted constitutional and political territory. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<div>\n<p>      Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, and author of the book &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1645720020\">The Case Against Single Payer<\/a>.&#8221; He is on Twitter: <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/chrisjacobsHC\">@chrisjacobsHC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joe Biden&#8217;s performance in the recent presidential debate has allowed Democrats to openly express concerns about renominating the current president due to signs of his physical and mental decline. These concerns go beyond worries about Vice President Kamala Harris becoming president, as a vacancy in the presidency could shift the balance of power in Congress. If something were to happen to Biden during his presidency, Harris would become president, leaving the vice presidency vacant and creating a 50-50 split in the Senate. This could lead to challenges in confirming a new vice president and potentially impact the ability to pass legislation. The possibility of a vice president&#8217;s tie-breaking vote determining control of Congress highlights the importance of considering the implications of a president&#8217;s health and the potential need for a replacement vice president<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":2288401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Vice-President-Kamala-Harris.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[33751,27773,14618],"class_list":["post-2288400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-control-of-congress","tag-octogenarian","tag-potus"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Vice-President-Kamala-Harris.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2288400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2288400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2288400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2288401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2288400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2288400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2288400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}