WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ahead of a trip to Columbus, Ohio on Friday, the United States Vice President will assume the Office of President.
The temporary ascension to the world’s most powerful office for Vice President Kamala Harris comes as current President Joe Biden undergoes a routine colonoscopy. Mr. Biden motorcaded Friday morning to Walter Reed Medical Center from the White House for the procedure, which will require him to undergo anesthesia.
The White House press office confirmed that President Biden was using section 3 of the 25th Amendment to temporarily transfer power.
According to the Library of Congress, the constitution reads, “Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.”
President George W. Bush had the same procedure in 2002 and 2007 and temporarily transferred power to his Vice President, Dick Cheney.
Ms. Harris is scheduled to visit Ohio Friday afternoon to tout the Democrats’ successful passage of a highly-controversial infrastructure bill last week.
