Since June 2021, Reform the Kakistocracy has been hunting for the ghosts performing Joe Biden’s presidential duties due to his diminished mental capacity. A 2025 article, “Finding the Ghost Performing Biden’s Presidential Duties,” asked the question directly. Finally, a new book, “Original Sin” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, has identified the ghosts as a group of long-time Biden senior advisors and family members. The authors identify them as Mike Donilon (Senior Adviser), Steve Ricchetti (Counselor and second chief of staff), Bruce Reed (Deputy chief of staff for policy), Jill Biden, Hunter Biden, and, occasionally, Ron Klain (first chief of staff), Annie Tomasini (Senior Adviser), and Anthony Bernal (described as a top adviser to the first lady and her “work husband”).
In U.S. history, only two presidents have been known to hold the office while in long-term diminished capacity – Woodrow Wilson and Joe Biden. The arrangement for masking the mental diminishment under Biden (2021-2025) was similar to the arrangement used by Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921). Under President Wilson, Edith Wilson, wife of President Woodrow Wilson, assumed the role of acting President, and the doctor providing medical care to the President was her primary advisor. In Biden’s case, his family was involved, but there are so many fill-in presidents that the authors named the team “the politburo.”
While the Department of Justice will determine the legality of these ghostly pursuits, the primary policy question that must be addressed is the legal status of all the documents that Biden may not have had the capacity to sign or may not have personally signed.
The Biden presidency issued 162 Executive Orders, 745 Presidential Proclamations, and 382 other types of presidential documents, many of which were Emergency Declarations. In addition, the Biden administration signed 274 bills into law in the 118th Congress. Last Christmas Eve, December 24, 2024, the Biden presidency signed fifty bills into law. Biden also set the presidential record by issuing 4,200 pardons and clemencies.
In addition to “Original Sin,” The Wall Street Journal wrote “How the White House Functioned with a Diminished Biden in Charge.” It corroborates 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. Its conclusion did not answer who ran the United States during the Biden presidency. Thanks to Original Sin, we now know the composition of the Politburo. While many of the actions taken by the Biden administration are unimport or undertaken by Executive Order, Proclamation, or Emergency Declaration, all of which President Trump can immediately revoke, there is the question of the legal status of the laws enacted and pardons granted that President Biden did not sign. Are they all void? How does Congress or the Attorney General identify them?
And what about the extremely harmful actions of the Biden administration – the 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? Were these decisions made as required by law? If not, who is to be blamed for the lives lost and the cost of illegal immigration to the nation? For those harms to the country, President Trump saved President Biden by securing a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that grants absolute Immunity from criminal prosecution for all actions performed by a president within his official responsibilities.
Congress and the American people must accept the brutal reality that presidents live for power over us and will never voluntarily relinquish it, no matter how diminished their mental state. More worrisome however, is that a president’s staff would protect a diminished president over the Constitution they swore an oath to defend.
How can we ensure that the grave lack of transparency, accountability, and deceit 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 all the facts and propose legislation to ensure the White House staff is never again in charge of the nation. Congress should subpoena Biden’s cabinet officials and White House staffers to testify about his mental condition during his term in office and all the decisions they made on his behalf. 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.
Concurrently, the U.S. Attorney General should examine the application of 18 USC sections 1001(False statements or entries) and 1018 (official certificates or writings) to determine whether a cabinet official or staffer violated those laws.
Section 1001 of Title 18 applies to anyone in the executive, legislative, or judicial branch who knowingly falsifies, conceals, or covers up a material fact; makes a materially false or fraudulent representation; or makes or uses any false writing or document knowing it contains a materially false statement.
Section 1018 applies to a public officer who knowingly makes and delivers as true a certificate or writing containing any statement that he knows to be false. This code section is highly relevant to the granting of pardons.
The American people elect a president and vice president to run the Executive branch of our government and to 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.
Concerned citizens must demand transparency, honesty, and accountability from our President, his cabinet, and their staff. The President must have enough respect for the American people to resign or follow the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution by removing himself from office until he can resume presidential duties. The office of the President does not belong to any individual. It belongs to the people of the United States. Presidents hold the title as fiduciaries who owe all loyalty to the Constitution.
