The bite fell and injured itself

The newly elected president Joe Biden (78) has fallen and injured himself while playing with the dog Major. It reports a number of White House reporters, including Bloomberg journalist

Biden’s heading to doctor’s office after hurting his ankle playing with his dog Major, his aides say. The POTUS-elect will be examined by an orthopedist, they say.

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) November 29, 2020

, on Twitter, with Biden’s device as the source.

The accident happened yesterday. Biden has sprained his ankle, and will be examined by an orthopedist today.

– To be completely on the safe side, the Biden device states according to

JUST IN: President-elect Biden slipped while playing with his dog, Major, and twisted his ankle:

“Out of an abundance of caution, he will be examined this afternoon by an orthopedist,” his office says.

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 29, 2020

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Age concerns

More than once, Biden’s advanced age has been a matter of concern; he becomes the oldest elected president ever, and during the election campaign, malicious rumors abounded about e.g. dementia.

Several news channels have analyzed what happens if the aging incoming president should resign or otherwise become incapacitated before the Electoral College convenes on 14 December.

According to the newspaper Quartz, the Democrats’ National Committee (DNC) in such a case will have the opportunity to nominate a replacement candidate and put pressure on the voters who will initially vote for Biden, to vote for the new candidate instead.

In the current situation, this second candidate will most likely be the newly elected Vice President Kamala Harris – but not with 100 percent necessity.

May change the result

Several states have laws that punish voters who vote for a different candidate than they have committed to, so a move to Harris can in practice be more complicated than you might think. In this scenario, one – albeit unlikely – solution is to leave Biden’s name on the ballot, and then let Harris take over after the vote.

Should Biden drop out between the election and the inauguration on January 20, members of Congress will have the opportunity to oppose the result of the vote in any state. This goes through if both the House of Representatives and the Senate agree on the exchange. But it is nevertheless very unthinkable that speaker and democrat Nancy Pelosi will agree to “give” a state to Donald Trump.