Finding the Ghost Performing Biden’s Presidential Duties

by William L. Kovacs, ©2025

(Feb. 7, 2024) — Now that Biden’s presidency has ended, Congress must uncover who exercised the duties of the presidency during his period of diminished mental capacity. In a world full of conflicts, the nation cannot afford to have another ghost executing the duties of the presidency.

On June 1, 2021, in the first few months of the Biden administration, Reform the Kakistocracy.com asked, “Who runs the United States?” As his term was winding down, a Wall Street Journal article, “How the White House functioned with a Diminished Biden in Charge,” exposed how the White House staff covered up Biden’s mental diminishment.

The Journal interviewed fifty people. It described ways in which Biden’s staff hid his diminishment. The conclusion did not answer who ran the United States during the Biden presidency. At least when Woodrow Wilson could not exercise his presidential duties due to a stroke, his cabinet and his secretary knew who was making the presidential decisions. “For a year and a half, the United States of America operated under an unelected shadow government of two.” His wife and doctor made decisions on the President’s behalf without any official mandate or oversight. Wilson’s cabinet was so cowardly it was afraid to ask the vice president to serve until Wilson’s disability passed.

In 1967, Congress and the respective states amended the Constitution by adopting the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. It provided a line of authority that addressed temporary and permanent presidential diminishment. Other than for short periods when a president underwent surgery, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment has never been exercised.

The White House staff knew about Biden’s diminishment. They intentionally hid his condition from the public. Yet, it was evident to any person watching Biden on television shaking hands with invisible people or his stammering and nonsensical presidential debate performance that he suffered from diminished mental capacity.

While the nation may never know who was making presidential decisions, it was lucky China did not invade Taiwan, and Iran did not fully develop a nuclear bomb. The U.S. did, however, have a disgraceful exit from Afghanistan and an open border that allowed hundreds of thousands of members of drug cartels, sex traffickers, and terrorists into our country. The U.S. will be dealing with these failures for decades.

Then there was the Ukraine War and the terrorists’ attack on Israel. For a while, the Secretary of Defense was incommunicado in a hospital while the President was being led around the White House lawn by the Easter Bunny. A stroke of bad luck could have put the nation on the eve of destruction.

Congress and the American people must accept that presidents live for power over us and will never relinquish it, no matter how diminished their mental state becomes. Even more worrisome, the cowards comprising a president’s cabinet will not invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, nor will a president’s staff disclose a president’s diminished condition. Why would any of these “public servants” put their jobs at risk? For the good of the nation?

How can we ensure that the grave lack of transparency and accountability that plagued the Wilson and Biden presidencies does not repeat itself? The potential risks are too significant to ignore. Congress must take preventive measures to prevent such a situation in the future.

Congress needs to investigate the Biden cabinet and White House staff for answers. Congress should subpoena Biden’s cabinet officials and White House staffers to testify on his mental condition during his term in office. Any official who refuses to answer should be subject to contempt of Congress. Any official asserting their Fifth Amendment rights should be granted Use Immunity to protect them from self-incrimination. Once their rights are protected, they must answer or be in contempt of Congress.

Any cabinet official or staffer who falsifies, conceals or covers up by trick or scheme or makes false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements to Congress should be subject to the penalties set forth in 18 USC sec. 1001.

Section 1001 of Title 18 makes false statements in government matters a crime. It has been used to prosecute members of Congress for lying on financial disclosure forms, initiating ghost employee schemes, purchasing personal goods with government dollars, or misleading a duly authorized congressional committee.

The American people elect a president and vice president to run the Executive branch of our government and ensure that the nation’s laws are faithfully executed. Our Constitution does not provide exceptions for White House staff to manage the country when a president is in a diminished capacity.

Should the President be unable to serve, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment provides a process for the vice president to serve as acting President. That process must be honored. It is the will of Congress, the states, and the people of the nation that in times of presidential incapacity, those responsible for evaluating the President’s mental state must have the courage to fulfill their constitutional duty under the Twenty-Fifth Amendment.

Congress must discover why the process failed during Biden’s incapacity. Concerned citizens must demand transparency and accountability from our President, cabinet, and staffers. By doing so, citizens can help ensure that the next time a President is mentally diminished, the nation is not left without a leader.

William L. Kovacs, author of Devolution of Power: Rolling Back the Federal State to Preserve the Republic. It received five stars from Readers’ Favorite. His previous book, Reform the Kakistocracy, received the 2021 Independent Press Award for Political/Social Change. He served as senior vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and chief counsel to a congressional committee. He can be contacted at wlk@ReformTheKakistocracy.com