'We Cannot Allow Another Weekend At Biden's Presidency': Schmitt Demands Answers About Biden Era

Forbes Breaking News

At Wednesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) questioned former President Biden's mental state during his presidency.

Transcript

00:00Thank you. I do want to begin by expressing my sincere gratitude to Chairman Grassley

00:04for granting me the privilege of co-chairing this committee with my esteemed colleague,

00:08Senator Cornyn. The title of the hearing, Unfit to Serve, captures a sobering and undeniable truth.

00:16President Biden was mentally unfit to carry out the responsibilities of the most powerful office

00:22in the world. Given his mental incapacity, the American people deserve to know who was running

00:29the country the last four years. Today, as we seek to answer this question, it is deeply disappointing

00:35but not surprising that most Democrats on this committee have chosen to all but boycott the

00:40hearing and have failed to call a single witness. They have chosen to ignore this issue like they

00:46ignored President Biden's decline. Their absence speaks volumes, an implicit admission that the

00:54truth is too inconvenient to face. By refusing to engage in this critical examination, they abdicate

01:01their responsibility to the American people. This de facto boycott is not just a refusal to participate.

01:08It's a refusal to serve the American people who deserve answers about who was truly leading their

01:14government. President Biden's decline did not suddenly begin in June of 2024. It was a persistent

01:23and obvious truth that was evident for years to anyone who was willing to see it.

01:30This reality did not require special insider knowledge or investigative reporting to uncover.

01:37We didn't need Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson to tell us what millions of Americans could freely

01:43observe with their own eyes. The truth was glaringly obvious. Anyone who was paying attention could tell

01:50that the emperor had no clothes. Nearly a year ago, I took the historic step as the first U.S. Senator

01:58to formally call for the invocation of the 25th Amendment against President Biden. I sent letters to every

02:04cabinet secretary and the vice president laying out the urgent case. Our nation was effectively without a leader.

02:11The absence of a functioning president wasn't an abstract issue. It inflicted severe consequences

02:19on our nation, consequences that touched every aspect of American life. On border policy, our nation's

02:26borders were handed over to the radical left-wing element of the administration, throwing open our borders

02:30to 15 million illegal aliens, an unprecedented immigration crisis that pulled our nation into chaos.

02:37On foreign policy, haphazard and reckless discussions, decisions, placed our warfighters in jeopardy,

02:44escalated conflicts around the globe, and led to a catastrophic humiliation on the world stage

02:49that claimed the lives of 13 American soldiers, including one Missourian, during the disastrous

02:54withdrawal from Kabul. On the economy, rampant inflation drove up the cost of life's essentials,

03:01making them unaffordable to countless hardworking families. In the realm of culture, the regime's

03:06censored free speech, closed down churches, targeted traditional Catholics and parents at school

03:11board meetings, and let an unelected class of left-wing radicals degrade, attack, and lie about our

03:17history and our heritage. A poisonous anti-Western, anti-American ideology that had once been confined

03:24to elite university classrooms suddenly became the official White House policy. All of this was done

03:31not in isolation. It was sustained, defended, and covered for by an alliance of elite institutions

03:39from the media to the so-called expert class to big tech to the federal bureaucracy itself.

03:46When we speak of collusion among elites or the so-called deep state, we're accused of being

03:50conspiracy theorists. But this was no theory. It was plain and overt, out in the open for everyone

03:58to see. For four years, we had a president who could barely string together coherent sentences

04:04after 6 p.m. Yet, this glaring fact went unreported, undiscussed, and unaddressed. Why?

04:13Because the Democrat Party, corporate media, federal bureaucracy, and big tech companies collaborated

04:20to conceal the truth from the American people, not out of ignorance, but because it advanced

04:26their own interests. In the absence of a functioning president, chaos took hold. An empty vessel occupying

04:33the Oval Office becomes a puppet for those surrounding him. Many elected officials, including some in this

04:40chamber, have used auto pens, a mechanical device that replicates a signature. There's nothing inherently

04:47wrong with that, so long as we are the ones actually making the decisions. But under President Biden,

04:53the auto pen became a troubling symbol, a symbol of an absentee president and an executive branch

05:00directed by nameless, faceless aides that no one outside of Washington, D.C. had ever heard of

05:07and no one ever voted for. It was the auto pen presidency, a government run by committee

05:14rather than a leader chosen by the American people. By contrast, love him or hate him, we all know

05:20President Trump is in command of his presidency, and he is the one calling the shots.

05:26It is plain as day that President Trump is actively making the decisions, whether announced via truth

05:31social or signature. Under President Biden, that transparency and certainty evaporated. We cannot confidently say

05:39that the decisions bearing his signature were the will of the president or his Politburo.

05:44That goes doubly for a social media post, including his decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential

05:51election. We did not know if it was his decision or posted on his behalf after a palace coup because

05:59President Biden was mentally unfit to serve. The corporate media played an indispensable role

06:05in this cover-up, systematically suppressing discussion of President Biden's condition.

06:10As we will demonstrate in the video evidence presented today, dissenting voices were silenced

06:16and the truth was buried. It was not a passive oversight. It was deliberate. It was a deliberate

06:23campaign to shield a narrative that protected the interests of the most powerful. Even members of this

06:29very committee, some of whom served alongside then-Senator Biden when he chaired this very committee,

06:34defended his mental acuity for years. Now Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson offer a convenient narrative

06:41to absolve everyone involved. The media lacked access. The family was overtly protective. The cabinet

06:48was incompetent. And Robert Herr said the president was merely a well-meaning man in aviators who liked

06:53ice cream. It is the tired, evasive refrain of the politician caught in a lie. Mistakes were made.

07:02Yes, mistakes were made. And every participant in the cover-up, from the media to the cabinet,

07:07is jointly and severally liable for what may very well be the greatest deception in our nation's history.

07:15Even their apologies today are framed in a way that absolved them from responsibility for this crime

07:20against the American people. They apologized for having missed the story. They didn't miss anything.

07:27They actively chose to ignore or run cover for the people in power. The Biden cabinet rarely met.

07:34And some members, like former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, deliberately distanced

07:39themselves from the president to maintain plausible deniability. Even members of this committee were

07:46part of the great deception. The Monday after Biden announced he would not seek re-election,

07:51one member called the idea of invoking the 25th Amendment outrageous, insisting the debate performance

07:58does not reflect who he is or his capacity to govern as president of the United States.

08:03Another member repeatedly vouched for Biden's fitness, declaring,

08:06Joe Biden is fit, capable, and ready to serve another term. And later, this is a man who is sharp,

08:12who is on top of his game, who knows what's going on.

08:15Yet another, during the 2020 Democrat presidential primary, alluded to Biden's decline,

08:21but quickly retracted his remarks when it became politically expedient.

08:26After the debate, yet another member praised Biden's strong delivery of remarks to NATO as evidence

08:33of his capacity to lead. The purpose of this hearing is not to interrogate Biden officials

08:38or partisan reporters, though they should be held accountable. Instead, our focus is to

08:44identify and rectify the systemic weaknesses that allowed this situation to fester unchecked.

08:51Our distinguished witnesses, experts in White House transparency, operational procedures,

08:56and executive power will assist us in diagnosing these flaws. While the House and Senate pursue

09:02fact-finding missions to hold these responsible to account, our mission here is to chart a path

09:08forward. We cannot allow another weekend at Biden's presidency.

09:12The D.C. establishment might argue that the governance of a shadowy, unelected figures

09:24is a legitimate substitution for a functioning president. It is not. The American people cast

09:31their vote for a president, not a faceless apparatus. Article II of the Constitution vests immense authority

09:38in the president of the United States, a single individual. With that extraordinary power comes

09:43equally profound responsibility. At the Constitutional Convention, our Founding Fathers debated giving

09:49the president the title of Defender of the Rights of the American People.

09:52The security and well-being of the American people and their rights must take precedent over personal

10:02ambition. It is often said that power corrupts. I believe that power reveals. Over the past four years,

10:09this cover-up laid bare a disturbing reality. The left and the corporate media placed their pursuit of power

10:16power above the welfare of your families and your country. They dismissed your observations, urging you

10:23to not trust, not to trust your own eyes. We have a solemn duty to call this what it is, an abdication of

10:32constitutional duty. As was stated in Federalist 51, ambition must check ambition. If a president is mentally

10:39unfit to serve, we need a dependable mechanism to, at the very least, ensure that the truth reaches the

10:45American people. I look forward to the insights this hearing will yield and from our expert witnesses

10:51in the discussion that will follow. The public is counting on us to ensure this never happens again,

10:58because we won't always be fortunate enough to have a leader like President Trump who is so unmistakably in command.

11:05Senator Welch. Thank you very much. Senator Cornyn indicated

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