The recent days in the presidential sweepstakes have witnessed the equivalent of a coup de théâtre.
The near-miss assassination of Republican candidate Donald Trump.
President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 race one month before the Democratic National Convention.
The immediate virtual unity among the ordinarily fractious Democratic Party behind Vice President Kamala Harris as Biden’s replacement. Only sub-featherweights Joe Manchin and Mary Ann Williamson have voiced interest in waging a challenge, and Manchin has already changed his mind. Democratic heavyweights like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro have lined up four-square behind Harris. They have been joined by the Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP, among others.
Why the uncharacteristic Democratic unity? Harris’ strongest would-be challengers perceive 2024 as an uphill battle against Trump, like a sprint up Mount Everest. Before dropping out, Biden’s transparent, prolonged feebleness, if not senescence, left the Democratic Party idling in the Horse Latitudes while Trump’s campaign locomotive accelerated. Handing the baton to Harris at this unpropitious time for Democrats is like Napoleon’s handing off his military command to Marshal Ney to conduct the disastrous French retreat from Moscow in 1812, featuring 500,000 French casualties.
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s thundering about Republican legal challenges to Biden-pledged delegates to the DNC are sound and fury signifying nothing. The U.S. Supreme Court underscored in Cousins v. Wigoda (1972) that political parties command plenary power over delegate selection and voting. If necessary, the DNC could amend party rules to empower Biden to direct Biden delegates to vote for Harris, which would clinch her nomination.
Further, Republican efforts to derail Harris’ nomination would betray weakness—fear that she would defeat Trump in a free and fair encounter. It would also bespeak hypocrisy, which would alienate some voters. The Trump campaign has been screaming from their lungs for months that the 34 felony convictions, judicial gag orders and 54 outstanding felony charges against Trump have unfairly handicapped his ability to campaign. That argument would burst if Trump’s MAGA Republicans sought to block Harris’ ballot access. Indeed, it would cast a legal cloud over a Trump victory in 2024 in which Trump could be hoisted on his own petard.
In 2020, Trump staked out a clear constitutional position with Vice President Mike Pence and his MAGA crowd, i.e., the vice president is constitutionally endowed with plenary authority to decide which state electoral votes to count under the 12th Amendment. The vice president’s unilateral determination of electoral fraud or wrongdoing is conclusive, according to Trump. And who will be counting the electoral votes for the 2024 election? None other than Vice President Harris, Trump’s political rival.
Another anomaly: Trump is clamoring for Biden to resign. That would elevate his opponent, Harris, to the White House. There, her stature would immediately soar. She would be meeting with foreign leaders and projecting power daily. She would have time to dispel doubts about her presidential capabilities and show that she wears power gracefully. She would enjoy far greater gravitas in debating Trump.
Moreover, keeping the cadaverous Biden in the White House is a daily reminder to the American people of the feebleness and anemia of the Democratic Party, which taints Harris by association. She is a sprightly 59 compared with Trump’s 78 years.
The Republican Party’s presidential candidate should be careful what he wishes for. He might get it.