Democrats successfully launched a soft coup against President Joe Biden after his senility became a political liability, with Biden announcing he would no longer seek the party’s nomination.

But if Biden cannot run for office due to the severe cognitive decline displayed during the debate, then dropping out of the nomination process isn’t enough. If Biden is too senile to run for president, he is too senile to remain in office.

Biden said in a statement it “has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

Biden is slated to speak “in more detail” about his decision later this week. The president also endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination.

But if Biden is permitted to remain in office for the next six months, then the “party of Democracy” just signaled that 14 million primary voters engaged in nothing more than perfunctory democracy. That is, one in which votes mean naught because a handful of D.C. elites have the ultimate say when their power suddenly is put on the line.

Democrats successfully kept Biden out of the public eye for four years. They smeared legitimate concerns about his cognitive state as “cheap fakes” and were willing to face jail time in a bid to withhold audio tapes of Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur. Democrats even ushered Biden through their primary process, preventing candidates like Dean Phillips from having a fair shot after he began questioning Democratic leadership about Biden’s cognitive ability.

They did this because Biden wasn’t a political liability at that point. Voters only caught glimpses of Biden, and when they did, it was largely for scripted remarks. But the debate changed that. Suddenly Democrats were forced to answer for Biden’s mental acuity. But explaining away a man’s inability to put together a coherent sentence, his repeated “forgetfulness,” or even his ability to walk off a stage unassisted was a question that had one answer: Biden is clearly incapable of carrying out the duties he sought to continue to do for another four years.

But if Biden’s incapacitation means he can’t be a successful nominee, he certainly cannot remain in office.

Democrats have two options. Encourage Biden to also resign from the presidency and let Harris assume the role, or Harris must invoke the 25th Amendment.

As I wrote just last week, the 25th Amendment requires invocation if a president is “unable” to carry out basic presidential duties. Biden is “more likely to have verbal miscues and become fatigued” outside the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., White House aides admitted to Axios. Staying up past 4:00 p.m. is a bare minimum requirement of leading the free world. The New York Times reported that Biden told Democratic governors shortly after his debate performance that he tires out easily and needs more sleep and less work. Current and former officials who met with Biden in recent months privately said the president would become confused and “listless,” as described by The Times.

Democrats are playing politics at the expense of our safety and well being as a nation by allowing Biden to remain in the presidency. Biden’s senility isn’t just a political liability, but a security one as well. Democrats have the opportunity to put people over party. Whether they’re willing to do what’s right for the good of the order is another question.

Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2