"Soft Coup" in Washington? Democratic Party Establishment Sacrifices Biden to Save the Permanent War Policy

by Harley Schlanger

There is an old joke, often repeated in diplomatic circles, especially among officials from nations which have been targeted by the U.S. for regime change coups: Why has there never been a coup in the United States.  The answer: Because there is no U.S. Embassy there! 

Events of the last five weeks, leading up to the letter from President Biden on July 21 announcing his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential campaign, demonstrate that with both parties under the control of a corporate donor class committed to wars to defend the crumbling Unipolar Order, there is no need for a U.S. embassy to carry out a coup in the U.S., especially as this policy is reinforced by the corporate media run by the same pro-war forces.  Despite the mythology of the U.S. as a "democracy", these events confirm that Biden was removed by a "soft coup", in which those who installed him in 2020 reached the conclusion that he must be sacrificed, to save the Permanent War policy they have imposed on the U.S. and its NATO allies -- despite his decades-long support for this policy, and he still supports today.

The Disastrous Debate

Despite ongoing evidence of Biden's physical and mental decline over the course of his presidency, it was his fumbling, frail and at-times semi-catatonic appearance in his debate with Donald Trump on June 27 which triggered the decision to remove him.  The central concern for those running the U.S. war machine is that Trump, if elected, might follow through on his pledge to end the NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.  The establishment fears a return of Trump to the White House because he is neither predictable nor easily controllable, which is why it launched the "Russiagate" operation against him even before his election in 2016.  Biden's feeble performance in the first debate set off alarms over their ability to orchestrate his re-election.     

This fear was bolstered by polls which show that over 70% of the electorate believes that Biden is "too old" to serve four more years, and that nearly two-thirds of Democrats are unhappy with him as their candidate.  Within days after the debate, the New York Times ran multiple op-eds by its leading pundits, such as Thomas Friedman, Nicholas Kristof and Paul Krugman -- all of whom have been advocates for a second term for Biden -- decrying his poor performance.  Friedman wrote that he shed tears while watching Biden melt-down, aware that he was not alone in seeing the decline of the President.

By July 2, the first Democratic elected official, Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas, called for Biden to drop out of the race.  The inability to put to rest fears about his mental state in an interview on July 5 with George Stephanopoulos, opened the floodgates further.  Over the next two weeks, thirty-six Democratic Congressmen called for him to withdraw.

Biden responded, insisting that he would stay in the race.  He wrote a letter on July 8, accusing those telling him to step down of being anti-democratic.  "The voters -- and the voters alone", he wrote, "decide the nominee....Not the press, not the pundits, not the big donors...."  His backers argued that he won all the Democratic Party primaries leading to his renomination, with no mention made that the Democratic National Committee rigged the primary process, to keep his most serious potential opponent, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., out of the primaries.

Biden's resistance to stepping down was answered by an op-ed in the New York Times on July 10 by Hollywood figure and leading donor George Clooney, who wrote, "We are not going to win in November with this president."   Less than a month earlier, Clooney and fellow Hollywood figure Julia Roberts hosted a fundraiser for Biden, bringing in nearly $30 million.  There are rumors that Clooney, who is close to former President Obama, may have submitted his op-ed in coordination with Obama.

On July 16, all but one of 75 major Democratic Party donors participating on a Zoom call said he should drop out, while the largest Super-PAC which had been supporting him announced it had placed a hold on $90 million which had been raised for his campaign.

Aura of Inevitability

According to legendary journalist Seymour Hersh, the end of Biden's candidacy was finalized by the intervention on July 20 of what he called the "Big Three" -- former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries.  In a July 27 article, "Leaving Las Vegas", Hersh writes that the three approved of a call from Obama to Biden, in which Obama told his former Vice President, "Here's the deal.  We have Kamala's [Harris] approval to invoke the 25th Amendment."  Hersh elaborated that this would mean that a determination had been reached that Biden was no longer able to carry out the duties of the President and would be removed, to be replaced by the Vice President.

Within hours, Biden's letter of withdrawal was posted on X, and he was out of the race.  Within a day, the drumbeat to replace Biden with Harris led to what many, including RFK, Jr., called the "anointing" of Harris, without a single primary vote having been cast for her candidacy.

The Party of Permanent War

Biden's withdrawal was greeted with paeans to him for his "selfless" act, putting the nation "ahead of his personal desire and self-interest".  He was lauded as a "great" president who saved the economy after COVID, and whose leadership in NATO prevented Putin from overruning Europe!  This, from the same mob which had been denouncing him days before for his "stubborn" refusal to accept the inevitable!  In other words, the drive to remove him was not based on opposition to what he was doing, which risked a possible nuclear confrontation with Russia, but their fear that he would lose to Trump, who supports neither NATO nor the proxy war with Russia!

Lost in the drivel about how the system worked, and that the "torch has been passed" to a younger generation, is that the removal of Biden was essential to save a policy which has become increasingly unpopular: that is, spending hundreds of billions of dollars on a war in Ukraine which is unwinnable, and which risks triggering World War III.  It also avoids addressing the legitimate concern that, if Biden is not up to running for President, is he competent to serve as President until January 2025?  And if he is not, who is running the country?

Harris, who will likely be nominated at the Democratic Party convention later this month, has been an enthusiastic supporter of the Ukraine war, as she made clear in her remarks at the 2024 Munich Security Conference on February 16.  In warning that the U.S. would adopt isolationism and authoritarianism if Trump were elected, she defended the U.S. commitment to a "Rules-Based Order", which requires standing up to Putin in Europe and a strong U.S. presence in the Indo-Pacific region.  Despite some expression of sympathy for the Palestinians who are being slaughtered by Israel -- with full complicity of the Biden-Harris administration -- she has defended Israel's "right" to wipe out Hamas, joining with Secretary of State Blinken in shedding crocodile tears for children of Palestine.

Robert F. Kennedy implied in a July 23 address that Harris was installed in a coup by the party machine which covered up for Biden.  This is proof, he said, of the domination by corporate power, as the Military-Industrial Complex has captured both parties.  He said that Harris "is the party of war...a war hawk on Russia and China," referring to her "coronation" as the nominee as comparable to how a "cabal" selected candidates in the former Soviet Union.

When Donald Trump was asked by Fox-News Jesse Watters on July 21, if this was "a coup against Joe Biden", the former President replied, "Yeah, sort off."  His choice for Vice President, J.D. Vance chimed in with "I think it is."

In the one hundred days remaining before the election, the opportunity exists to reverse the effect of this "soft coup", designed to keep the imperial War Hawks in control of both parties, by demanding that the U.S. accept the offer of Russian President Putin to engage in a diplomatic resolution to the war in Ukraine.  A new security and development architecture is emerging in Eurasia, one which is open to participation by the U.S. and European nations.  It is up to the citizens to demand that the U.S. break free of control of the corporate oligarchs and their commitment to endless wars, and act in the interests of its people.