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'Having chosen Harris, Biden then proceeded to ignore her' (Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)
We are stuck with the French phrase coup d’état because nothing else describes so well the sudden removal of an old ruler by secret manoeuvrings — and their replacement with a chosen successor who happens to be endowed with every possible virtue. Of course, Kamala Harris is not a dictator because she must still face a nationwide election. But secret manoeuvrings did make her the presidential candidate of her Democratic Party, a position that is also intended to be filled by primary elections up and down the country before delegates agree on the victor at the Party Convention.
Nor was her vice-presidency enough to secure her candidacy. Far from it, given the unpromising electoral record of that most peculiar office, not inaccurately described as “not worth a bucket of warm spit” by John Nance Garner, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vice president. In fact, in all of American history, only seven vice presidents were elected to the presidency (eight replaced a dead president). This reflects the habitual role of vice presidents: emphatically not presidents-in-waiting but rather politicos serving as symbolic figures who are selected to attract voters that the president cannot attract with his policies.
In Garner’s case, those voters were the good ol’ boys of Texas and the South who might not otherwise vote for a New York patrician who was also a liberal. In Biden’s case, those voters were women: so much so that he felt it necessary to announce the sex of his vice president without first selecting a plausible candidate. Indeed, Senator Elizabeth Warren initially thought she had secured the position, but Biden’s most important backer during his painful primary season — after losing badly in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, America’s most senior black politician, Rep. James Clyburn, came to the rescue — demanded that the woman should be black. For Biden, Harris was the obvious choice because she was still new in the Senate and had little power of her own.
Having chosen Harris, he then proceeded to ignore her, just as each president before him had ignored his own vice president, so that it was only very recently that Harris was given a definite task: to stop the embarrassing and politically disastrous immigrant flood at the border with Mexico, which had started when Trump’s rather effective control measures were revoked during the very first days of the Biden Presidency.
What ensued was also embarrassing: having been appointed the “Border Tsar”, Harris did not stay in Washington to re-activate the controls that had worked so well under Trump, but instead travelled to Guatemala to earnestly tell would-be immigrants: “Do not come! Do not come!” Yet nothing changed at the border, which continued to be swamped — until Biden reactivated Trump’s measures as the election was approaching, when the numbers duly fell.
This is why, only a short time ago, the very same outlets that are now filled with joyful enthusiasm for Harris featured the grave warnings of anxious Democratic gurus, whose editorials urged her swift replacement by Biden. Unsurprisingly, Biden ignored those suggestions. As his own physical strength waned, Harris gained a very important new role in the White House: the best possible reason to keep Biden in the White House.
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SubscribeThe maneuvering of the palace eunuchs is really only ever of interest to them. Regardless of who ascends to the throne, in the end they will close ranks and present to the peasant masses a united front.
The MAGA freak out continues and even gathers pace as Trump spins further and further out of control – really fun to watch!
At least after he loses in another landslide he can go back to cheating at golf, cheating on his wife and cheating his business partners. Oh wait, maybe he’ll be in jail instead!
Pass the popcorn!
Or he will win. Pass the popcorn,
All hail The State comrade!
Look,all that matters is that shes got a nice smile,healthy white teeth. Nice styled hair. Wears nice style clothes. Discreetly applied make-up to enhance her womanly beauty. Nice skin tone,glowing and not too dark for the whiteys,not too white for the blackeys,have she and Obama ever been seen in the same place together. Just wondering. Nice figure,oh now Watermelons,that nice smile…..
Why the comment about Harris and Obama not being seen in the same place together? Do you think they are like Clark Kent and Superman?
You set me off thinking. For a while the fantasy that Michelle Obama would be the ideal candidate to replace Biden was widely touted despite Michelle having neither government experience or interest in the proposal.
Could not Obama have run again himself if he had transitioned as Barbara Obama? To refer to his former name would have been to have committed the sin of using his “dead name”. Is a president only allowed two terms? Well Barbara Obama has not been President and would be the ideal first black woman to be President. Weird? Well weird is in the ascendant in the US currently.
Weird is certainly the right word for this little view into your psyche!
She’s a puppet too. Why didn’t Obama hold the bankers accountable for the sub-prime mortgage fraud? Because they put him in the White House. The Democrats and their presidents are owned by Wall Street.
Chuckle!
To be fair I think people also like the fact that she’s not insane.
But she is completely bonkers!
Can’t wait for four more years of corrupt plutocracy, can you? All champagne and no socialist.
“Another landslide”? Say what you like about him, but Trump got over 74 million votes in 2020, comfortably the most for a Republican candidate in history. In the states that put Biden over the finishing line the margin was very close. You have a somewhat peculiar definition of a landslide!
Biden got over 80 million votes. I think that extra 6 million votes is what they are referring to when they talk about a landslide.
You may wish to check on Trump’s definition of a landslide.
And who cares if he got the most votes for a Republican candidate when the Democrat candidate got 8 million more votes!?!?
You people are utterly ridiculous!
The author is deeply experienced in global politics, but the conclusion of this article seems slightly naïve. The Dems will present a united front behind Harris at the convention. There will be no demand for “choice”. All those presidential wannabes will curry favor and bide their time for four years.
I am now almost resigned to a Harris presidency. The Republicans are, so far as I can see, still ineffective campaigners while the msm literally remakes Harris’s image and political history. Where are the relentless ads tying Harris to the border crisis and the influx of illegals into America’s major cities? Where are the ads endlessly showcasing her ultra-left pronouncements over the years. The Republicans have a bottomless pit of material for attack ads but can’t seem to use it.
You are correct. The Trump campaign (and Trump) is not focused on winning this race and instead dwells on stuff that the base loves (such as 2020). Warnings are coming from many including the Wall Street Journal today that Trumps needs to focus on issues while Harris / Waltz focus on joy.
For a while there, Trump was focusing on attacking his REAL enemy, the Republican Governor of Georgia.
Trump dose not have any real plans or any long term goals, let alone any vision for anything outside of himself. All he cares about is being the center of attention and controlling everything around him, with effect or intent being of little or no concern to him. Despite his obsession with wining, winning for him is less about achieving anything tangible or lasting but all about staying socially relevant, it dose not matter if staying relevant means people are being negative or positive towards him. If people are are paying attention to him, he is winning in his book. If wins the presidency, he will be the center of attention by default, if loses he can portray himself as a leader of the opposition and being in position to generate publicity for himself. This motivation has been the signal, obsessive drive of his entire existence. A lot of politicians are like this, he just takes to the logical extreme. That’s the reason why he dose not talk about issues much in length because they don’t really interest him, and only talks about them in reference to himself, and if he were to focus more extensively on them, he would not be the center of attention and would thus endure great psychological torment as a result of that.
and if Harris wins, she will try to implement the Soviet-era economic policy she talked about last week. Hmmm; I’ll take a guy doing little more than staring at his own reflection over that.
She is not going to implement a Soviet style command economy, she’s too dependent on Wall Street and silicon valley to allow that to happen, and she herself doesn’t really have much inclination to go in that direction. What she’s going to do is that she’s going to double down on neoliberal plutocracy, which means economy is still relatively free but it’s rigged in favor of large and powerful firms in a small number of influential sectors. But the vast bureaucracy and it’s openly complicated rules and an overly complicated tax system that most small time entrepreneurs have difficulty navigating that’s design to ensure that the powers that be can pick winners and losers, what’s the winners always being the big guys. The economic system is design to stifle competition that could potentially threaten the wealth and power of the politicians, bureaucrats and the businesses that work together to screw over everybody else for their own benefit.
Kamala isn’t going to implement or engineer any policy or position that is hers.
She’s the next useful idiot of the UniParty.
And therein ends the lesson.
Like Biden, the Democratic party(Obama) will run the Presidency.
true to some degree though anti labor rights migrant fans like uber are her backers – BUT – corporatism is just the marketised version of communism – there’s only a cigarette paper between NSDAP (Siemens, Krupp, Porsche) and USSR ( Lukos, Rusal, Burisma (lol))
Forgot to add – IKEA in the NSDAP part of the organogram
Pretty good description of Fascism.Also a pretty good description of the system as it is in the US.
All the Democratic accusations of Trump being a Fascist are simply Psyche-ops designed to prevent their clueless minions from understanding that Fascism is what they are in fact supporting.
It’s really hilarious that every conversation about Democrat politics is instantly diverted by a Democrat into talking about what a narcissist Donald Trump is. Ha ha! We know. So let’s get back to discussing Kamala’s role in this Administration and who really controls it.
Who cares? She’s not Trump! Surely that is reason enough to vote for her?
Perhaps that IS enough for a low information voter..
Why wait for the election? Move to Venezuela now!
This may be true, though can you argue against his performance in office? I believe he was a deterrent to Russia as opposed to Biden.
Only because he is such a lunatic you can never predict what he’ll do. Still, Putin for the most part had his measure.
TBH his heart is in the right place IMO but he’s naive – does not understand real-politik, i wonder if like Corbyn, galloway, diane abbott et al he’s propped up by £s from his opponents?
People forget that Trump was losing in 2016 until Steve Bannon came on board. Bannon gave the campaign a focus and ideological rationale. Probably why the regime were so keen to have him in prison this year.
Yep, I don’t think he’s coming on board this time around.
Trump is still ahead in the betting markets. After Kamala’s prom, he will pull ahead.
A week is a long time, and if Harris peaks too soon, still plenty of time left for the other side to get their act together. But will they ?…
A woman…incredible…clearly keen to have men tell her what to do with her body, how to educate her children, how to run family life. That added to the fact that Trump is a convicted abuser of a woman….makes him the ideal candidate for you. Of course, you would say that the Judge in the case received his orders from the DoJ (and indirectly from the President) which completely ignores the structure of the American judicial system. Of course, any Judge or jury that convicts Trump is perpetrating a political stunt. Well Cathy, I am sure you will welcome the very “democratic” precepts of Project 2025. I am sure that you are looking forward to the “New” world that this presages. Good luck with that.
The judge DID get his orders from on high. No one not named Trump would have even been charged over the Stormy business, let alone tried. Are you even aware that a federal prosecutor passed on the case because it was so weak? Probably not, because no one told you about that.
Instead, you’re here babbling about women “being told what to do with their bodies” as they have no agency, no ability to determine who to sleep with, no ability to use birth control, no ability to insist that their partners do likewise. For sheep like you, women’s bodies are a euphemism for abortion. How cute that the party is staging a spay and neuter clinic on site; maybe the Dem herd can cull itself a bit.
Awesome response—I woulda been more directly insulting and probably been booted, or chastised. UnHerd is starting to resemble FOX news in its vulnerability to attract people like Steven Zimmer, who apparently thinks his “arguments” are going to convince people.
Yet that is precisely what today’s democrats are pining for. A cradle to grave control over women’s lives in return for a vote.
Berating a stranger is…weird?
So no, you haven’t anything positive to say about Cackling Kamala at all, have you? Not one achievement or character reference to trumpet.
I thought this was an uproarious parody of a Steven Zimmer comment but then I scrolled to the top and saw the author’s name. Just like that, comedy became tragedy.
Trump is a convicted abuser of a woman
This begs the question: should we in the UK consider him convicted when the case he had to answer would have been instantly thrown out of any British (or French, German or Italian) court on the grounds of lack of evidence? Or should we view his conviction in the same way as that of Alex Navalny – as the misuse of the justice system by a corrupt ruling class?
Hmm, not sure about that. She is the political equivalent of an open goal, so much is there to hit. Trump though has no idea where the net is. If Biden went from being the only candidate who could beat Trump to the only candidate who couldn’t, then Trump is the only Republican who can’t beat Harris.
Kamala and Tim—Queen and King of the Prom….oh, God…what a concept.
That because they are not interested in dealing with the problems, they only want to exploit them. They see them as something the can use to benefit them politically, they don’t want to fix them because doing so would go against their personal and professional interests and make enemies of powerful interests they don’t want to antagonize. Republicans and Democrats are just two side of the coin that is the rotten political system, The Democrats are the preferred political instrument of the plutocratic elite control, and the Republicans just controlled opposition and and have the same level of complicity as the Democrats but in different ways. Trump is just an opportunistic interloper who saw the discontent that was brewing under the surface and wanted to exploit it for his own benefit, and had no interest in fixing anything.
The Republicans have become a reactionary identity group of fearful poor whites manipulated by the Heritage Foundation. If Trump wasn’t there they’d have had to invent him. And they’ll still be a threat when he’s gone.
You can say a lot of things about the Democrats of course, but they are still a normal political party representing complex, diverse interests. Even their backroom boys have to compromise to stay in the game.
the weirdest description I have seen for decades about the Democrats being “a normal political party representing complex, diverse interests”…HAH! They have CREATED all those interests to begin with! We learned about irony in High School English.
The Democrats are the political wing of Wall Street. Nothing normal at all about a political party that is almost entirely funded by half a dozen people.
You seem to know a lot about Trump, who you say “had no interest in fixing anything”—I am not sure you have the foggiest notion of just to what degree he was NOT allowed to be President , and just how big a target the Deep State/Uniparty put on his back from Day One, and actually even BEFORE Day One.
Maybe they are saving that for the election.
“Where are the relentless ads tying Harris to the border crisis and the influx of illegals into America’s major cities?”
And where is Donald Trump’s promised wall along the US-Mexico border that helped get him to the White House
They are on YouTube for sure.
you might recall that funds for the wall were refused by the Democratically controlled Senate. But then, you would have to know what you were talking about.
But Trump said that Mexico was going to pay for the wall!
Indeed he did promise that.
Maybe the Republicans are waiting for the end of the DNC just to make sure they are attacking the right person. Who knows, maybe Obama will decide on someone else in thje days ahead?
Good point. Why would they even attempt to compete with that. Maybe keeping their power dry…
Yes, I expect they are waiting for a clear head shot, and not possibly wasting ammo on the wrong candidate. They’ve already done that once in the last few months.
In the same vein, Kamala is holding back from any interviews or statements, so that at the Convention she might be unburdened by what she has been.
And so that we may all be unburdened by what has been.
I was thinking along similar lines that the Trump campaign might be waiting for this protracted deafening crescendo of Orwellian Trump hate to wrap up on the 22, since that seems to be all they have.
I too see very few Republican ads, though i live in Massachusetts and NEVER see Republican ads–why waste the money on a lost cause? Maybe you dont live in a battleground state either,
I live in MA, too, and I DO get emails from the Trump donation machine. And their focus is off too – it’s personal attacks instead of a focus on policy. The base will vote for him no matter what – so why pander to them??? Focus on the issues instead of how she looks on the cover of Time, and it should be easy to beat her. I’m afraid precious time has been lost.
I live in London and constantly get ads on social media. Guess somebody must know that I have relatives in the US.
There are plenty of Trump ads in the battleground state I live in.
The ads on Harris and her mishandling of the border issue are running constantly on YouTube at least. They feature many of the women who have been murdered just this year by men who have crossed illegally under the Harris-Biden Administration. It’s very sad indeed.
How many?
Totally agree. For Kamala’s level of insight view this clip https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-ofLkXtKfi/?igsh=ODI5OTdlcGt3bXVk
I’m sorry, but there is a flood of nonstop ads to the effect. Not on TV however. No one watches TV.
Interesting. I don’t live in a battleground state and I don’t see Trump ads. Also, I’m not a registered Democrat or Democrat voter, but my phone is swamped with texts from Dems asking for donations. Nothing from the Republicans.
Yes, we do.
I disagree. I constantly see Trump ads about the border crisis and Kamala’s economic incompetence on social media. After all the statistics about the utter failure of the Biden admin and particular her as the border czar saved his life. How much more of publicity can you get…
Looking at the Rasmussen polls ( which are publicised nearly every second day), it doesn’t seem at all that Harris is hugely pulling ahead of Trump. Today in an other poll Trump is also up by 4% on economic competence and on border security…
Trying to tie Harris to the “border crisis” isn’t going to stick. The Democrats gave the GOP everything they ever wanted on a border bill earlier this year. Trump stupidly killed the bill because he wanted the border to stay an issue for him to exploit. Biden then issued executive orders implementing most of what was in the bill. Border crossings are now lower than they were under Trump. Go ahead and keep up that messaging, sure to be a winner for the Republicans.
Probably 98% of the people already know who they will vote for, if they decide to vote at all, regardless of campaigns and ads. Trump is his own worse enemy, and he has become a bore now, same old repetitive bs coming from him. Like Biden, who made the right decision to leave under pressure, Trump appears too old and tired for the job, his bloated ego wanted a rematch with Biden, but now with Harris his campaign is in disarray. Most people under 60 can’t relate to Trump, he looks and sounds like a freak from a past bygone era. The more he insults Harris, the more people are turning off. In 2016 he was considered funny and different, but no longer. The demographics has also shifted enough in 8 years to make a difference.
Very well observed.
I don’t get this. When Biden was the nominee, the Republicans ranted on about how he was senile, and couldn’t be trusted to do the job. Now that he has stepped down, they rant on about how he was deposed in a coup. I don’t think they can have it both ways. As to VPs not doing anything useful, I recall Richard Cheney having considerable influence (please note I was unable to use the usual abbreviation of VP Cheney’s first name, because the system didn’t like it).
Of course they can have it both ways… it is in the nature of power politics that you can say anything as long as you retain power. If it turns out to have unforeseen consequences the
Ministry of Truthcompliant Main Stream Media will memory-hole it for you.Heard anything substantial about the attempted Trump assassination recently? No, I thought not.
Substantial? I understand the facts to be that some guy took a shot at Trump, (largely) missed, and was in turn shot by a sniper in Trump’s security detail. What else is there to know?
The shooter donated to Biden. But he registered as a Republican – which was allowed in Pennsylvania, and was STRONGLY ENCOURAGED by the Dems so that they could vote for a weaker Senate candidate on the Republican side. and win the seat (which they did). The assassin was a staunch progressive.
What do the politics of some deranged lunatic have to do with anything here? The Democrats don’t want any harm to come to Trump. They want him to be the nominee just has desperately as the Republicans wanted Biden. Lucky for them the Republicans don’t seem to care that he’s completely out of his mind.
No, he wasn’t he was an opportunistic mass murderer. He went where he knew there would be a crowd. He shot an innocent man in the crowd and would have shot more people given the chance.
I prefer purge. It was an old fashioned Soviet style retirement engineered by the same central committee that elevated Biden in the first place. He was sent into retirement not eliminated. In this instance Khrushchev comes to mind.
Is the Democratic Party manifesto with details and costings of all the policies they intend to implement available online for all to read and evaluate.
You do know that Republican administrations run up MUCH bigger debts than Democrats right? Don’t buy into the nonsense about how they are the party of fiscal responsibility. Look at the numbers. Reagan. Trump! What did Trump tell you about how he was going to erase the deficit? What did he actually do?
let’s see: the national debt doubled under Obama and its trajectory under Biden is there for anyone to see. But, please; parrot more talking points.
Look at the numbers! We don’t need talking points. The national debt is not a secret. Don’t take my word for it, look it up and see for yourself.
If that were a real question you’d use a question mark. If you were really interested you’d google it.
More informed commentators and insiders have zero’d in on Pelosi being the prime mover on Biden needing to step down and not Obama. In the end it matters not, other than perhaps Author not quite got his ear to the ground as much as suggested.
Good to see you have the inside track on this thanks to your extensive network of contacts in Washington.
As much as the author does.
That is what I’ve read from many sources. Then again, Obama could have deployed Pelosi.
Good grief! Conspiracy theories up the yin yang. Is there not perhaps someone controlling Obama, like Michelle?
“Of course, Kamala Harris is not a dictator because she must still face a nationwide election.”
I’m gonna stop you right there, because this is UnHerd and I’m allowed to express unconventional opinions.
My every read of the last Presidential election is that there was a margin of electoral interference (through fake mail-in ballots certainly; possibly also manipulated voting machines) that exceeded the margin of ‘victory’ of the candidate who best adheres to the interests of the Deep State of the American Empire.
I have every reason to believe this will happen again in November.
But I actually agree with the statement that Harris is not a dictator. She is much more like a puppet for a technocratic state run by a plurality of elite interests. If ever she tries to assert any real power as ‘President’ (she never will), she would find the roofs around her to be much too sloped for the safety of her security detail.
Given that this is UnHerd, are you going to name some of the people who comprise this “plurality of elite interests”?
Sure: Larry Fink. Barack Obama. Mike Pompeo. William Burns. Bill Gates. The Koch Brothers. Hillary Clinton. CIA operative Joseph Kahn.
These people are not hard to find. They are hiding in plain sight.
The people probably aren’t hard to find, but the suggestion that they secretly run the US doesn’t appear in any mainstream media that I have read.
Of course you’re allowed to express unconventional opinions, although the belief that 2020 was stolen seems to be pretty widespread on here as elsewhere.
I am no fan of the Democrats, certainly not the current cohort, but this continues to trouble me.
Trump was crying foul before both the 2016 and 2020 elections even took place. In 2016 he was on record as stating he would accept the results “if he won”. This is clearly someone who wasn’t going to accept defeat gracefully regardless of what happened. He even claimed it was rigged when he lost a primary to Ted Cruz.
I am deeply sceptical of much of what the MSM media serves up, but I nevertheless find it hard to get past the fact that multiple lawsuits were filed and almost all were dismissed, including by Trump appointed judges, and even the Supreme Court (with a 6-3 R majority, a third Trump appointees) refused to accept several approaches.
It troubles me that many seem to think an election result is only legitimate if they win. I watched the fallout from 2020, fully expecting the legal challenges to present clear evidence of widespread fraud at a level that would have changed the overall result, and they did not. Do people not think Republican judges would have jumped at the chance, had the cases presented held sufficient merit? Why would such people choose to be complicit in a rigged election going against them and their interests? Seriously asking here.
Let me state again, I am no fan of the Dems and I think Harris would be a terrible president.
I agree with you on Trump – his protestations are not evidence that something was rigged. But just because the Devil says 2 + 2 = 4, that doesn’t make it equal to five. There are other reasons to believe the election was rigged. Listen to Ken Paxton on the subject, he has the receipts.
As for the lawsuits, you have to put yourself in the place of any of these judges. Imagine the election is rigged. What do you suppose happens if a court rules this to be the case? How does it play out? Once that bolt is shot, there is no way to return it to the crossbow.
“Listen to Ken Paxton on the subject, he has the receipts.”
Your entire rigged election theory is completely lunatic but thinking that Ken Paxton is the man to listen to is the crazy cherry on the nutso cake!
If he “has the receipts” (pro tip – he doesn’t) then why isn’t he doing anything about it?
Please tell me you aren’t this crazy!
Attacking a person instead of the person’s argument is to concede defeat.
You saw an argument in his lunatic rantings?
That makes me think you are as dumb as he is!
Cutting through the heated rhetoric, Champagne – if you’re really interested in this, you just need to look at the handling of mail-in ballots in key constituencies between 10pm and 1 in the morning.
It simply doesn’t add up, especially in the context of a pandemic (yet highest voter turnour ever?)
“It simply doesn’t add up” doesn’t cut it, slick.
Where is the proof? Why can’t Ken Paxton or someone else take this to court? Or when they do take it to court why do lose every single time, including in front of Trump judges who reviewed the evidence and threw it out. Why do you need a crook like D’Souza to make a laughable “documentary” about it which is debunked in a minute.
Trump lost in a landslide and it had nothing to o with cheating. He’s just a really awful candidate and an awful person – voters can see that, or at least enough of them can. And he’s going to lose again in November and make the same idiotic claims – but this time he doesn’t have the bully pulpit. No doubt there will be some minions in certain states who will try to pull a few tricks to help him but he’ll lose anyway.
You’re literally asking me for the proof, while refusing to look at the proof.
That’s no good reason for a judge to not overturn something with sufficient evidence, and a VERY flimsy argument against the election being rigged. Again, not a single judge found any sufficient evidence to overturn the election. Some folks here need to make up their minds…when the libs call out the Supreme Court for being stacked, it’s all “you have to trust the courts, it’s the foundation of our country”. And when the right has a problem with a bunch of judges ruling against their interests, we start calling into question the sanctity of the courts. Was the election rigged? You have every right to believe that, just like you have every right to believe there are unicorns on Saturn.
Lawsuits were dismissed by judges because of so-called lack of standing based on the fact that by the time the lawsuit came to trial, it would be too late to change the outcome. Further, it was also completely unreasonable to expect that Trump’s lawyers could have presented all the evidence in such a short time, especially given that the opposition in the form of various secretaries of state was never going to provide them with that hard evidence willingly. That’s why close to 50% of the country believes, rightly or wrongly, that the 2020 election was chosen. What should have been done, given the unprecedented and in many cases illegal changes in voting procedures, is for the whole business to have been put on stand still and a proper and thorough investigation carried out in the 3 states and 35,000 votes that separated the 2 candidates. And this wasn’t an issue of recounts. One can recount phony or ill-procured ballots until the cows come home and that won’t change the results. The issue is whether those ballots were valid. For example, ballot harvesting in nursing homes full of Alzheimer’s patients is clearly not appropriate. Likewise, photocopying ballots with the exact identical voting marks is also fishy. Now whether the irregularities would have made any difference to the outcome is another matter and we’ll never know.
I agree, but virtually every Democrat to lose a race in recent years has protested that the election was stolen. Why do accept that elections are stolen only from Democrats?
You’re projecting a wee bit here, sonny.
Only Trump has failed to concede when he lost – and he lost by a LOT! And only the morons who worship him despite his obvious ridiculousness believe a word of it! Sound like you, gramps?
Really, seriously? I haven’t heard one Democrat whine about losing because of fraud.
“Hillary Clinton is sticking with her conviction that the 2016 presidential election was not conducted legitimately, saying the details surrounding her loss are still unclear.
“There was a widespread understanding that this election [in 2016] was not on the level,” Clinton said during an interview for the latest episode of The Atlantic’s politics podcast, The Ticket. “We still don’t know what really happened.”
Hardly whining about “losing”.
The problem with all you election deniers logic is that if the system was controlled by this so called deep state Trump never would have been elected for a single term. The fact is he lost the popular vote by millions. American’s have never perferred Trump and he’s never won a popular election. He’s nuts. Most American’s see that.
The Deep State are wise enough to know the vote result has to be close to reality to be believable. Also while exceptionally powerful and widespread they are neither onmipotent or omniscient.
Agreed. There is only a margin of discretion that these ppl can operate.
Sounds like an explanation of what is God. Cover all your bases in case of failure.
1) I hate the term “xxx denier”, because it’s just so loaded. I mean, are non-Christians “Christ deniers”? Are non-muslims “Mohammed Deniers”?
2) The control the Deep State executes over the system is imperfect. 2016 caught them by surprise, then the machine got going.
Exactly.
A large part of the electoral interference was the refusal of the Msm, intelligence agencies etc to stay even vaguely neutral.
I think that’s true. But even without that, I think the vote was rigged.
What you think doesn’t make it so. Facts Trump fantasy, but Donald Trump doesn’t Trump facts.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was evidence of electoral interference exceeding that the margin of victory for the candidate who best adhered to the Deep State of the American Empire? Then you wouldn’t have an “unconventional opinion.” You’d just be stating facts.
Fortunately, the Republican House held public hearings on election interference, presented compelling evidence to the American people, and proved conclusively that the election was rigged in several swing states and that Trump really did win in he election! Oh, wait, they actually formed a committee to impeach Biden that didn’t actually uncover any evidence of impeachable offenses.
Come to think of it, the Deep State is really good at these things!
Lol
Will the interference perhaps come from the right? “Methinks the lady doth protest too much”. It’s kinda like the spouse who is constantly accusing the partner of cheating when they are the ones doing the cheating. The cheating idea came from Repugs so why not do it? Why don’t Dems turn the table and accuse Repugs of cheating should they lose? If the system is rotten it cuts both ways, doesn’t it?
Caramel ain’t black to misquote Joe Biden.
All of this makes me feel weirdly joyful.
I’m eager to see an unexpected “Black Swan” event. But I doubt it will happen at the convention. No mention here of the strong chance Trump will be in jail a month from now.
Mr Lutwak is living in cloud cuckoo land I’m afraid. The best way to stop Kamala’s “coup” is in November.
This has got to be one of the most pathetic elections in US history. No substance on either side. Totally ignoring what’s going on in the world. Help?
That is what happens when the major media institutions, controlled by the biggest corporations who finance both main parties, go radio silent on the independents, or trash them – if Robert Kennedy Jr were fairly represented and allowed on the debate stage – a million people have petitioned for him to be on the ballot, compare that to Harris – it would be a cake walk. I know he has his detractors on Unherd, but he got it right on Covid and has an unparalleled understanding of the endemic corruption of the FDA and its impact on our health, and how to entangle that.
Vote RFK Jr
Isn’t he pulling out to help his buddy Trump?
Not a chance the CCP (USA) will allow an open convention. Or any dissent who its candidate will be. She’s it, and because of the pure idiocy of the opposition (if they deserve even that level of respect), she’ll be our next President. With Obama pulling the strings. I agree with that.
Nor was her vice-presidency enough to secure her candidacy.
Casting the tie-breaking vote to pass the Stimulus and Inflation Inflating Acts, which together raised the debt by about $4 trillion, should disqualify her from polite company. The Republicans should be repeating this in their commercials. Inflation was more Harris’ fault than Biden’s.
No one person is responsible for inflation.
‘Kamala’s Undemocratic Convention’
Wiki lists 31 Types of democracy so I’m sure Kamala’s will be in one or more of those.
No one in the real world cares. She can win against Trump (if, ironically, against no one else!) and that’s what matter to them.
Don’t be fooled by the polls with massive response bias embedded in them. Trump is still ahead in polls that don’t manipulate their internals in order to shape opinion instead of reflect it.
In your world is there anything that isn’t controlled by something else? Sounds a tad paranoid.
To quote Jim Hacker – “You’d be paranoid if everyone was plotting against you”.
That Edward takes this view is a sign that Kamala is most likely a good choice. That, and the fact she is clearly far more substantial than most media said.
Show me a Democrat who’s not happy with this. Or even an independent. The only laments are coming from those fat days counting on Trump to win and cut their taxes etc.
To the contrary of all of the “male” (only one female) respondents to this article, I find this to be a piece of tendentious garbage. Clearly a partisan who sits on the sidelines taking potshots at a woman who has made it to the top. Yes the process was messy and yes everyone has fallen in line but where is the coercion? To be frank and honest, you guys should get a life. Kamala Harris, to the contrary of what I would have thought given her atrocious performance in 2015, has done a remarkable job. Biden knew she would and everyone else had ignored her barnstorming around the country on women’s reproductive rights and other important subjects. I presume you are all on board with turning the US into a reality version of the Handmaiden’s Tale and the implementation of Project 2025! Well, good luck to you. Harris is not perfect but she is doing a remarkable job. If you believe in democracy and freedom of expression, you should be cheering her on and not denigrating her. Trump has been and always will be a present danger to democracy and freedom and is an extreme danger to the world order as we know it. Good luck to us all if he wins!
Name one “tremendous” thing Kamala has done. Just one. We’ll wait while you consult with the DNC for the approved talking points, something your post is brimming with as it is. Sure, it’s Trump who is the danger to democracy, not the party that has subverted its own primary process for three consecutive election cycles. The party has once more told you to shut up, that your vote does not matter, and you’re begging to have another.
What an absurd comment. Remarkable? Other important issues? I have serious doubts about her based on what she has said and her failure to actually achieve anything. She did not make it to the top, it was handed to her.
The fact that you support her is not proof of the things you accuse others of. I’m also interested in how you know who is male or female here.
You may talk the liberal progressive talk, but i think you’re walking the walk with a Zimmer frame.
Do tell us: which barns have been “stormed”?
> I presume you are all on board with turning the US into a reality version of the Handmaiden’s Tale and the implementation of Project 2025
*Claps* bravo my friend you had me fooled until this line. A most excellent bait my friend.
I have thought from the get go that she as dumb as a box of rocks. I am female.
The irony of this post is absolutely delicious!
There is more than one female respondent here. Women don’t always use their own names but instead use the neutral Unherd user name. Nell Clover is a man.
A coup? Seriously? It was very clear to everyone after that disastrous debate that Biden needed to step aside. They could have had an open convention, but no one stepped up to challenge Harris. She was literally endorsed by ALL the obvious candidates within days. It’s natural in a situation like this that people look to the VP to take the lead.
Yeah, I really don’t understand why this is being framed as this inside job.
“What happened next could not possibly have occurred if there were not a single directing hand behind the scenes. Suddenly, the very same voices from Nancy Pelosi down, who had just told the American people that Biden was fit and ready to win in the upcoming elections and rule for four more years, said the very opposite: that Biden should immediately announce his withdrawal from the elections.”
Suddenly? The author makes it seem like everything was hunky dory, and one morning Biden woke up and had all the Democrats demanding he renounce his bid for a second term. Yes, we could come up with a wacky convoluted theory for this, OR, we could go with the rational explanation, which was the god awful debate that everyone in the world has seen by now. Sheesh.
“Harris was given a definite task: to stop the embarrassing and politically disastrous immigrant flood at the border with Mexico…” It is stunning that the author could be so naive. Harris was given the task of making convincing noise that she was dealing with the border while intentionally allowing as many future Democrat voters as possible to invade from all directions. As for there being a move at the convention to supplant her with someone else: ain’t gonna happen.
The right is looking increasingly ridiculous. Political parties in America control their own nominating process. When faced with a nominee who was obvious too old to win the party did what it had to do and had every right to do. President Biden is still President no one has replaced him as the leader of the free world. The party chose a different nominee after the primaries in an emergency.
This was not a coup. Stop being delusional.
Ya you’re right they just happened to wait until right after the primaries to decide Biden was weak and infirm after months of claiming “he’s sharp as a tack”, “he’s totally capable”, “he’s smart as he’s ever been”, and then they turned on a dime “he’s decrepit and old”, “he can’t do this job” meanwhile people were shouting this for years only to be dismissed as conspiracy theorists and nut jobs.
The fact of the matter is they lied to you, they lied to your face, they are going to continue to lie about everything all the time. You’re in an abusive relationship, don’t trust him when he says he loves you and it will get better, he’s going to keep lying and drinking and abusing you. You’ve gotta call it quits the DNC isn’t going to change.
Being weak and infirm doesn’t disqualify someone from being or running for President. He isn’t suffering from dementia. I wasn’t lied to, I have two eyes, and it was obvious to me that he was old going back to 2022. They thought he could run despite that, but the debate convinced them he couldn’t.
Please, just stop being delusional.
I don’t know if you support Trump but people who do can’t really believe he tells the truth or is in any way qualified to be President unless they are delusional.
Completely putting aside politics for a moment, he looks, acts, speaks and moves like ever dementia patient I have ever worked with over many years.
The flat affect, missing or inappropriate facial expressions or intonations, shortening step length, lack of arm swing and trunk rotation.
Frankly, it’s sad to watch but you reap what you sow.
“He isn’t suffering from dementia”
How do you know this? From watching him on television or have you spent some time with him? Age is not the problem.
He can read a speech off a teleprompter to a large audience. I don’t think a person with dementia could do that. BTW, how much time have you spent with him?
He can stumble through a teleprompter. Dementia has many stages and many symptoms. If you knew anything about dementia you wouldn’t dismiss it so quickly. But you’ll believe what you want and it makes no difference.
If being weak or infirm doesn’t stop one from being President then why was he dropped?
Of course no Republican ever lied about anything. I mean, the 2020 election really was “stolen”, wasn’t it?
The right? Um, I have seen lefties all over social media complaining that they voted for Biden and not Kamala.
No you haven’t
Spoken by a true narcissist.
What a silly comment unrelated to anything.
I don’t know why it’s silly or unrelated. CS told Ruri that he hadn’t seen lefties on social media complaining that they voted for Biden not Harris. I don’t know how he could know this. Unless he knows better than everyone, which is an attitude of superiority, self importance and having a unique understanding of things. Which are symptoms of a narcissistic personality.
The author is naive beyond belief.
I want Trump to win because Harris is another useless DEI hire.
However, how could “Democrats” seriously remove Kamala from vice-president candidacy without looking like real idiots?
What they should had done is to persuade Biden to announce his resignation before Democratic primaries.
They could dress it up as decision in interest of USA by declaring sudden deterioration in Biden health.
For whatever reasons they chose to lie to American people and Harris was instrumental in it.
If somehow Harris wins Presidential election, it becomes terrible news for American democracy and future of the country.
Somehow, idiotic hate for Trump for mostly pseudo-moral reasons (what about Clintons then?) is more relevant than candidate with zero real achievements and IQ of table leg.
I guess it must be something “unburdened by passage of time”?
“Pseudo-moral reasons”? He tried to destroy democracy!
“He tried to destroy democracy!”
Come on. Exactly how was he going to destroy democracy? That’s a big call. Even if it’s true that his “supporters” got control of the Capital, what next? A few hundred people against … well it hardly needs saying.
Well, let’s leave Jan 6 out of it then. How about the “I need 11,000 votes” conversation? What is that if not an overt attempt to rig the election?
It is already unfolding as a CCP fest. But spare a thought, please, for all those party political operatives. However cynical and hard bitten they seem they do in their hearts pine for leadership.
The last four years have been hard. Daily striving to maintain the illusion of Joe Biden’s Presidency. And so also for the media. Each morning pretending to believe the smoke and lies.
What a huge weight off all of their shoulders when Joe ‘stepped aside’. A moment, a few weeks, of euphoria and optimism.
And then? The awful prospect of another four (minimum) years of pretence.
That the childless Bride of the State is a ‘Momala’. That she is statesmanlike, having just about travelled to the Southern border. That she is ‘joyful’ when she is horrible to those who work with her, that she represents the downtrodden when she is the daughter of academics, that she has a coherent, or any, set of beliefs. And so on.
How wearying to have to ‘spin’ the truth all over again. How soul destroying to buy the new lies.
How sad that Bonnie Prince Barry cannot come over the waters to save us!
Coup? Talk about concept-creep.
Ludicrous hyperbole.
Yeah, after all their complaining Biden was too old to do the job, Republicans have complained three times as much about him stepping down.
Well of course they will play it to win, but in fact it’s not that they object to him stepping down but how it was done.
He stepped down! What of it? It’s not as if anyone smothered him with a pillow!
‘Aint that the truth! Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Ignoring Project 2025 to cry about the Democratic Party moving forward for the win.
I have voted in every U.S. presidential election since 1972, mixed Democrat and Republican. Why does the potential election of Harris scare the hell out of me? The author has laid out the facts that half of Americans will ignore. She slept her way to the top and is the default Democrat candidate because she is a woman of color. This, combined with the dealings of Obama to bring her to the forefront at the last moment is an insult to the democratic election process. Harris could simply “ride the wave”, avoid press conferences, repeat her mantra and voters would be none the wiser. The MSM will control the narrative through selective reporting.
Other than her failings as the “border czar”, we have nothing to determine merit for election to the most powerful office on the planet. My one question regarding the article; “What is the vanishing chance?” My opinion is that it is a critical assessment by the MSM(not going to happen) or an embaressing performance in the debate. I suspect she will not debate more than once. Like Biden, the less the electorate knows, the better.
Yes, indeed. Her opponent, by contrast, has had to work his way up from poverty, armed only with his integrity, his kind heart, and his good humour.
Not facing an “election” in the meaningful sense – even putting vote rigging and fraud aside as in Putin’s Russia if 95% of the public debate is controlled by one party the vote itself is meaningless. 2. Look at the picture – she’s a wee bit of tendonitis away from a straight arm salute that would warm the hearts of past corporatists – espcially in 30s Italy and Spain. Cara el Sol “karamala”.
I must have misunderstood the US political process. I was under the impression that in order to become President, Harris would need to be elected by the Electoral College, which is in turn elected by the people.
The mainstream GoP voters are in despair as the party is captured by Trump, who is obvs a better person than krum- Ali, not least ‘cos he has an instinct to negotiate and choose peace over war. However he is electoral marmite, or maybe even kryptonite. We always used to joke at work how much the tories paid dianne abbott – did they settle her kids huge school fees – or enure her wayward son had a good stash of ‘Tina and sharp scissors? Well ahora mismo with Trump?
Oh dear what a sour dribble of impotent bile.
Is Obama running the Democratic party the equivalent of Trump running the Republican party?