Vice President Kamala Harris’ dream came true on Friday when President Joe Biden underwent anesthesia for a colonoscopy, allowing the vice president to take over the powers of the presidency for a little over an hour.
Biden went under at Walter Reed Medical Center as part of a “routine” physical around 10 a.m., the New York Post reported.
He was back in charge by 11:35 a.m., however, limiting Harris’ tenure in the top spot.
Harris takes over
The president had reportedly alerted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate President Pro Tempore Patrick Leahy (D-VT) that he would “transfer temporarily the powers and duties of the office of President of the United States to the Vice President during the brief period of the procedure and recovery.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that, generations from now, Americans will remember the moment Biden received a colonoscopy on a Friday morning.
Harris, who is the most unpopular vice president in American history, “makes history every day,” Psaki said — but Harris temporarily assuming control of the presidency was a new “chapter” for women and girls.
“As a woman myself, I will note that the president, when he selected her to be his running mate, obviously he knew he was making history, making history that was long overdue,” Psaki said, according to Yahoo News.
Speculation galore
The moment underscored what many consider to be Biden’s vulnerability, with a recent poll finding that a full half of voters believe Biden is not mentally well.
Indeed, Biden’s often confused appearance has encouraged plenty of speculation that he is, as former President Donald Trump described him on the 2020 campaign trail, a “puppet” being controlled by other, more progressive members of his party.
One popular theory is that Harris is waiting for Biden to be incapacitated so that she can finally achieve her ambition of becoming president. But less than a year into the Biden era, Harris is collapsing — just 28% of voters like her, a recent poll found – and there are rumors of a rift between her and Biden.
A recent CNN article claimed that the Biden camp finds Harris’ “awkward” laugh and general incompetence cumbersome, while the Harris camp is said to be fearful that Biden is sabotaging her in favor of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, another Democrat with obvious presidential aspirations.
In the meantime, speculation about Biden’s cognitive decline is not likely to go away, but those in the mainstream media seem dedicated to ignoring the elephant in the room.
The post VP Harris briefly assumes role of acting president as Biden undergoes physical exam first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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