Former President Donald Trump and his supporters, facing a tougher election now that Vice President Kamala Harris has stepped in as the Democratic nominee, have begun to claim that replacing President Joe Biden on the ticket is a “coup” or potentially “unconstitutional” and invalid on state ballots.
However, former federal prosecutor and CNN legal commentator Jeffrey Toobin dismissed these claims as unfounded during an interview with Anderson Cooper on Thursday. “So is there any legal footing for this argument that it was unconstitutional for Harris to become the nominee?” Cooper asked.
“Anderson, I try to give balanced answers whenever it’s possible, but it’s really not possible in a circumstance like this,” Toobin responded. “This is a completely open-and-shut situation.”
Toobin explained, “Yes, it’s true that the voters voted in the Democratic primaries for Joe Biden. However, Joe Biden has withdrawn as a candidate, so the delegates who were elected in those primaries now get to pick a different candidate. They have picked Kamala Harris. That’s how the Democratic Party rules work. It makes sense. There is no impediment in the Democratic Party to this. And that’s the end of the story. There is no legal impediment to Kamala Harris being the nominee in all 50 states.”
Cooper then clarified, “And just to be clear, I mean, the Constitution, which is what the former president is referring to — he’s suddenly very interested in what’s unconstitutional — the Constitution does not address the party nomination process, correct?”
“No,” Toobin confirmed. “There is a general provision in the 5th and 14th Amendments that says the government has to act with due process of law, but that applies to the government’s behavior. The Democratic Party is a private entity, and in any case, there’s no argument that there was an absence of due process here. They had a candidate who won primaries, who’s not a candidate anymore. They have to pick someone else.
They have picked someone else. There is no constitutional provision that would bar that under any circumstance.” Toobin’s clear explanation underscores the lack of legal basis for the claims being made by Trump and his supporters, emphasizing that Harris’s nomination is entirely within the bounds of both party rules and constitutional law.