American coup d'état

(JNS) — Now that the Democratic National Convention has ended, the dust is just beginning to settle. 

Maureen Dowd, who is a fixture at the very left-wing New York Times, titled an Aug. 18 article on President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris, “The Dems Are Delighted. But a Coup Is Still a Coup.” 

Dowd wrote: “It wasn’t exactly Julius Caesar in Rehoboth Beach. But it was a tectonic shift and, of course, there were going to be serious reverberations.” She called Biden’s removal “a jaw-dropping putsch.” 

She could not have been more on target. Of course, she got bombarded with one missive after another on social media. 

Biden’s removal was as near a coup d’état — a move of government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership — as has ever happened in American history. It was clearly unprecedented. 

Former Biden chief of staff Ron Klain disapproved of what went down. He said in an interview: “I think that was wrong. Biden had secured the nomination through the democratic process.” Some 14 million people cast their votes for Joe Biden, not Kamala Harris, to be the Democratic presidential nominee. 

When Lyndon B. Johnson dropped out of the race for president in 1968, he had barely won New Hampshire against Eugene McCarthy. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who replaced Johnson, won the Democratic nomination by winning the primaries. He had actual voters voting for him. This was not the case for Harris. 

The real question, however, is who is responsible for forcing Biden out. Maureen Dowd names four people: Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. Subsequent articles in the New York Times indicated that Pelosi may have ended her 50-year friendship with Biden because she helped force him to step aside. They have not spoken since. 

Obama, who has been a shadow president over the past four years, was likely the key figure in the plot to bring down Biden and insert Harris in his place. Harris was an Obama protege and early supporter. Although Obama did not endorse Harris immediately, it appears that he was all in. Harris must also have fully supported the plan to topple Biden. She could never have raised $231 million in one day unless it was all prepared ahead of time. 

I am sure there will be volumes written about the fateful weekend when Biden decided to withdraw. Dowd was not too far from the mark when she compared the fall of Joe Biden to Julius Caesar. Her words are not to be taken lightly. They have staying power. It will go down as a day of infamy in American politics.