Legal expert schools MTG and Cotton on what real 'coup' looks like

25 July 2024

When President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, some supporters of GOP nominee Donald Trump — including Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) and Fox News' Jesse Watters — accused Democrats of attempting a "coup."

Meanwhile, far-right radio host Erick Erickson even equated Biden's decision with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies retaliating against political enemies.

Erickson tweeted, "Y'all can argue over the word coup, but Biden stepping aside is the American equivalent of all those people accidentally falling out of windows in Russia."

But attorney Dean Obeidallah, in a biting opinion column published by MSNBC's website on July 25, argues that anyone calling Harris' presidential campaign a "coup" attempt are misusing the word "coup" badly.

"Almost four years after supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to keep Congress from certifying Joe Biden's win in the 2020 election," Obeidallah argues, "Republicans have finally become comfortable using the word 'coup.' However, consistent with their upside-down view of the world, Republicans are not using 'coup' to characterize what Trump and his supporters attempted between his losing the election and January 6, 2021."

Obeidallah continues, "They're using it to mischaracterize Democrats convincing President Joe Biden to step aside to give Democrats a stronger chance of defeating Trump."

Obeidallah observes that while "a president dropping out only a little more than 100 days from the election was jarring and historic," it was hardly an "attempted coup" — unlike the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building and Republicans in Congress refusing to certify Biden's victory over Trump that day.

"By characterizing the Democrats' changing of the guard as a coup," Obeidallah explains, "the GOP's goal was apparently to divide Democrats with a narrative that Biden was unjustly forced out. As the off-the-charts excitement and enthusiasm for Harris confirms, that's not working."

The attorney adds, "But using the word could definitely work for Democrats. They shouldn't let voters forget that Republicans have nominated for president a man who fought against leaving when voters told him to."

Dean Obeidallah's full MSNBC column is available at this link.

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