Who is Providing Presidential Leadership with the Nuclear Football?

President Biden’s support team in background with what may also be the President’s Emergency Satchel

With the performance of Joe Biden at the June 27, 2024 Presidential Debates, the question arises of protocol for leadership of the nation.

The 25th Amendment, normally entitled, “Addressing the Presidential Succession Process” is the standing Constitutional guidance for transition of power from a President to the Vice President.

The left howls routinely about this when a President with an (R)  is in office, but until the dumpsterfire on of June 27, there were crickets with (D)s about (D)s.

With President Joe Biden, a growing and strong Democrat chorus is being heard that the current Commander in Chief has substantive cognitive issues.  Dr. Sanjay Gupta, of CNN is a trained neurosurgeon and has called for a cognitive review.

Congressman Rich McCormick (R-GA-6), a Doctor also, is concerned that Biden has Lewy Body Dementia.  Bob Woodward, a Washington Post Investigative Journalist, deriving his notoriety from Watergate and the takedown of the Nixon Administration, was concerned that June 27 was a “political H-bomb” in regards to Biden’s cognitive abilities.

This brings up additional nuclear issues related to the 25th Amendment.  More specifically the concern over America’s nuclear command and control

Does the current Commander in Chief have the mental acuity to carry out nuclear command and control?

Many might have heard about the “nuclear football”.  A more official title, the “President’s Emergency Satchel.  Historian William Burr calls the satchel a, “nominally secret command-and-control system used to assure presidential control of nuclear use decisions”.

The “football” or satchel started with President Eisenhower and has evolved since then.  It can weigh up to about 45 pounds, so it can be quite a substantial satchel.  Russia and Pakistan are known to have equivalents.

China mimics most everything the U.S. does, so it is likely that President Xi has one also. The height of the U.S. nuclear arsenal was the 1960s when perhaps 35,000 nuclear warheads existed in the American inventory.

Now, in a much more dangerous world with a relentless Chinese military buildup, including a frenzy in building up their nuclear force, the American nuclear force is down to about 1,500 strategic warheads and around 1,000 – 2,000 small, tactical nuclear warheads, so potentially the “football” has gone through significant weight reduction.

In 2022, the Biden Team changed the previous clear and simple nuclear policy of, “The U.S. reserves the right to use nuclear weapons” to “As long as nuclear weapons exist, the fundamental role of U.S. nuclear weapons is to deter nuclear attack on the United States, our allies, and partners.

The U.S. would only consider the use of nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States or its allies and partners.”  Using the words of Donald J. Trump, I’m not sure I know what this means and I don’t think the Biden Team knows this either.

The underlying legal authority for a President to use nuclear weapons is actually fuzzy – but one thing that is not fuzzy, it presumes a President who can pass the 25th Amendment test, and even his own party is challenging Biden’s ability to serve.

We used to exhaustively assess foreign leaders, China and Russia still do

The assessment of foreign leaders by a special group at the CIA used to be a high art form.  The depth and scope of the analysis by psychiatrists and psychologists and other experts was legendary.

With the end of the Cold War and other priorities like spying on Presidential Candidates, that art form may have slipped downward on the priorities list.   It is unclear if this capability exists inside the U.S. Intelligence Community to anything like the scope and scale that it used to.

The Chinese Intelligence assault on the non-China aligned world can only be described as the most aggressive, pervasive, and expansive the United States has ever faced.

Taking a cue from the American playbook, as they often do, China and Russia likely expend immense resources maintaining their leader profiles and books of other nations, especially the United States.

What they have possibly collected, analyzed, and interpreted on President Biden is that he is cognitively disabled, coddled by his wife and inner circle, and is not really performing Presidential duties like any post World War II American President.  They may possibly conclude, they are facing an America without a President.  This can only lead to dark and sinister intent on next steps.

Is there a window of nuclear vulnerability until January?

There are five countries listed as foreign adversaries in U.S. Law, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela as led by the Maduro Regime.  If they haven’t already concluded that President Biden is having cognitive issues, June 27 likely tipped them in that direction.

With President Xi, the leader of the rogue’s gallery, assessing whether it will be easier to topple America with Biden, Harris, Newsom, Whitmer, or Donald “Teddy Roosevelt” Trump (DJT’s new honorific after July 13) at the Presidential Desk, the answer is obvious.

Would the “No Limits” Gang try something including a possible large scale attack on the U.S.before January 20, 2025?  The danger and risks are high.  America needs functional leadership now if for no other reason, to make sure America is protected from foreign adversaries with nuclear weapons.

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