As news broke that President Joe Biden would exit the 2024 presidential election, Republicans cried foul. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) criticized Biden’s decision to step down, claiming the Democrats might “run into legal impediments” if Biden isn’t at the top of the ticket. On ABC, he said : “It would be wrong, and I think unlawful, in accordance to some of these states’ rules, for a handful of people to go in a back room and switch it out because they don’t like the candidate any longer.
That’s not how this is supposed to work.” HuffPost pointed out that Johnson failed to cite a legal doctrine to back this up. And so far, there’s not much of a legal case to be made by Republicans, as Biden had not been officially selected as the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nominee.
There doesn’t seem to be anything in the U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1 , concerning presidential elections, that is violated by Biden stepping aside.
There’s nothing in the 12 th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would make this illegal, either.
States have also not printed their ballots on which presidential candidates’ names will appear. Antonio Fins with the Palm Beach Post, as posted on Yahoo , noted that Florida has its primary for non-presidential races on Aug. 20.
Several other states similarly conduct their non-presidential primaries in August or September, according to the Federal Election Commission . This means that general election ballots simply cannot be printed for many more weeks, as those states don’t yet know who will have qualified for their general elections. ALSO READ: How much access did $50,000 buy someone at the Republican National Convention? This unexpectedly shorter presidential election season — at least between the two new opponents in Donald Trump and Kamala Harris — may seem strange, even unmooring to many Americans, particularly for anyone who’s of a Generation X, millennial or Generation Z vintage.
But, in fact, the 2024 U.S. presidential election appears destined to in part resemble American presidential elections before the 1970s, when national nominating conventions were more than made-for-television formalities, where a party’s “presumptive” nominee had — for better or for worse — not been determined weeks or months earlier.
Before the modern nomination process began in 1972, when statewide electoral contests began to eclipse state conventions as the “primary” means of selecting delegates, candidates were selected at national party conventions. Starting in 1856, the first year there was both a Republican and a Democratic Party in the same election cycle, there have been 86 national party conventions held or about to be held. ALSO READ: Milwaukee girded for massive convention protests.
But they got something else . Over the years, only three of these party conventions took place in May. Thirty have been conducted in June, 29 in July, 21 in August and three in September.
For conventions in August and September, late in the game, Republicans outnumber Democrats for holding these August and September meetings, 13-11. This year’s Democratic Party convention in Chicago, scheduled to begin Aug. 19, would be within these normal time limits.
With the Trump vs. Harris matchup beginning just 106 days removed from Election Day on Nov. 5, the United States will also walk a small step closer to other advanced democracies, which tend to have shorter election seasons.
I analyzed the most recent presidential and parliamentary elections of 20 different advanced democracies from Europe, North America, Asia, Oceania and the Middle East. These countries include France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Greece, Belgium, Ireland, Denmark, Portugal, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Israel, Poland, the Czech Republic, Australia and Austria. The average number of days for an election is 75.
8 days. If Biden’s replacement is formally chosen on Aug. 22, 2024, the final day of the Democratic National Convention, it will be 75 days until the election.
When Speaker Johnson claims, “That’s not how this is supposed to work,” what is happening in 2024 is a different process than the endless election cycles that have recently dominated the American process that often exhaust the average American voter. That does not make it illegal. HuffPost reports that the Heritage Foundation, behind Project 2025, which Donald Trump both has never heard of and also manages to strongly disagree with , will likely be filing lawsuits in several states over the change in candidates.
Sadly, filing endless litigation over elections does seem to be a more disturbing trend in modern presidential elections in America. But from a constitutional standpoint, as well as an historical one, little seems to stand in the way of a Trump-Harris presidential race — quick as it may be by modern political standards. John A.
Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Ga. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.
edu . His “X” account is JohnTures2. MSNBC's Joe Scarborough ridiculed Donald Trump and other Republicans for "freaking out" about the prospect of facing Vice President Kamala Harris instead of President Joe Biden.
The 81-year-old president dropped his re-election bid Sunday under pressure following his weak debate performance and endorsed his vice president, and the "Morning Joe" host said that decision upended the GOP's election strategy. He added it seemed to catch Trump off guard. "There is a shot of Capitol Hill where Washington is in shock this morning," Scarborough said.
"An earthquake, a tornado, a tsunami of change. I don't know, what should we say? "All right, I will tell you, there's some Republicans in there freaking out. I mean, you know, here's the thing, like, if the other side is freaking out and going crazy, you know you've got them where you want them.
Democrats have to be feeling pretty good this morning. I had heard from inside the Trump campaign for some time right now that the one thing Donald Trump feared was not having Joe Biden." Scarborough compared the dynamic to a boxer who has trained and prepared to face a right-handed opponent, and then steps into the ring to find a southpaw.
"This was the one thing that sort of had him melting down," Scarborough said. "Most people say that over the last month, he's been more serene than usual, since the trial, he's been a little calmer than usual. But the one thing that got to him was the idea he might not be running against Biden.
"That's all he's been focused on since 2020. Now you're hearing [House Speaker] Mike Johnson, all these other people freaking – ' This is illegal, you can't do this, you can't decide at a convention who your nominee is going to be! You cannot, you cannot let the delegates decide.' Well, yeah, you can.
You can decide at the convention who your – it is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard in my life." "But, again, the fact they're freaking out so much has to excite a Democratic Party that was really at its lowest ebb of any party I've seen since, let's say Watergate," Scarborough added. Watch the video below or at this link.
MSNBC 07 22 2024 06 51 19 youtu.be CONTINUE READING Show less Vice President Kamala Harris quickly racked up endorsements from major Democratic figures—including President Joe Biden—and received the backing of deep-pocketed party donors on Sunday after the incumbent exited the 2024 contest in the face of insurmountable pressure. But while much of the party coalesced around the vice president and argued she's the obvious choice to take on Republican nominee Donald Trump in November, some Democrats and commentators made the case for a competitive nominating process, contending that it would strengthen the eventual candidate and avoid the appearance of an undemocratic "coronation.
" Former President Barack Obama was the most prominent Democrat to hint at support for something resembling an open convention , saying in a statement that he has "extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges." Prior to Biden's exit, dozens of former Democratic lawmakers endorsed an open convention, writing in an open letter that the process would "energize the party and capture the imagination and interest of voters—especially younger and marginalized voters—who have been uninspired by the choices so far." "I am for an open convention—huge media coverage leading up and during—knock the Trump campaign off kilter and off the air!" former Rep.
Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), one of the letter's signatories, wrote in a social media post on Sunday. Opponents of an open convention, meanwhile, argued such a process would be chaotic, divisive, and inherently damaging to the party's prospects.
"Democrats have a choice to make: unite and win, or fight each other and lose," said Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Randall Woodfin. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.
Y.) and other progressives in Congress also made the case for rallying behind Harris rather than leaving the door open to potential Democratic challengers and requiring Harris to win the nomination at the party's convention in Chicago next month. "Kamala Harris will be the next president of the United States.
I pledge my full support to ensure her victory in November," Ocasio-Cortez wrote on social media. "Now more than ever, it is crucial that our party and country swiftly unite to defeat Donald Trump and the threat to American democracy. Let's get to work.
" It's unclear whether any viable challenger would emerge should Democrats opt for an open convention, but Harris herself said after Biden dropped his reelection bid that her "intention is to earn and win this nomination." Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is reportedly considering re-registering as a Democrat to compete for the nomination—a bid that would be doomed to fail given that he's reviled by the Democratic Party's progressive wing and much of the establishment for obstructing significant elements of Biden's legislative agenda.
NOTUS reported Sunday that "a small group of Democratic leaders are seen as having the credibility and resources to challenge for the nomination," including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and California Gov.
Gavin Newsom. According to The New York Times , some Democrats privately "argued that a more competitive process would benefit Ms. Harris because it could dispel doubts about her political skills.
" Notably, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.
Y.), and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) were not among the Democratic lawmakers who endorsed Harris on Sunday.
Drop Site 's Ryan Grim observed Sunday that "the conventional wisdom is that an open convention is simply never going to happen, and if it does it will be a disaster for Democrats—weeks of infighting and chaos that'll drag the party down." "But that argument is merely a mix of assumption and assertion," Grim wrote. "With a little imagination, that chaos could be turned toward the party's advantage at a time when it's desperately needed.
The argument for coronating Kamala Harris doesn't consider how it would look for a party that is in the grip of a legitimacy crisis—Democratic elites were the last in the country to acknowledge Biden's frailty—to foist a new nominee on the public." "If Kamala Harris wants the nomination, and wants it to be worth anything, she has to at least show that she fought for it and won it cleanly," he added. "And the only way to do that is at an open convention.
" The Democratic National Committee's (DNC) rules panel is set to meet this week to "implement a framework to select a new nominee," as The Wall Street Journal reported . The panel's co-chairs, according to the Journal , vowed the process would be "comprehensive, fair, and expeditious." Before Biden's exit, the DNC was planning to hold a virtual roll call vote early next month to cement the incumbent president as the Democratic nominee weeks before the party's convention in Chicago.
It's unclear whether the DNC plans to move ahead with a virtual vote. "While an open convention would undoubtedly be entertaining to watch, I doubt we'll see that," said Dan Tokaji, an election law expert at the the University of Wisconsin Law School. "It's possible that delegates will vote to nominate Harris before the convention even begins.
" CONTINUE READING Show less Ron DeSantis must be madder than a wet hen, sick as a parrot, fit to be tied. His political future just got knee-capped by Donald “My Ear Took a Bullet for America” Trump when the convicted felon and Putin fan girl chose J.D.
Vance as his running mate. It’s not that Ronbo wanted the VP slot: He doesn’t do second-in-command. But he had visions of a 2028 run for the White House dancing inside his head.
If only Diaper Don had picked a sad also-ran like the once kinda sorta moderate-turned-toady Marco Rubio, the epically boring governor of North Dakota (what’s that dude’s name again?), or the embarrassment that is Tim Scott, Ronbo figured that, with his charisma and charm, he could whip any of those guys next time. But Trump went and screwed him, elevating a brat senator who’s younger and smarter and arguably more extreme . Ronbo’s consolation prize was a last-minute speaking slot at the convention with Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump’s other discarded concubines.
As for the future, maybe Ronbo can land an afternoon slot on Fox. If Trump wins and somehow doesn’t declare himself president-for-life, Vance will be the nominee in 2028. Ditto if Trump loses and the country survives the violence.
Vance could end up as president before then, possibly without lifting a finger — except maybe to pass Trump the Pretzel Bacon Pub Cheeseburgers that finally tip him over into massive stroke territory. Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and their autocracy-loving billionaire buds will see to that: Those two, along with Don Jr. (whose own cousin calls him “ stupid ”), pushed hard for Vance to be on the ticket .
Risibly ignorant Vance is their kind of guy: not merely a jerk of the first order, but a democracy skeptic. Ukraine? He says he can’t figure out why people think Putin is a threat and “ really doesn’t care .” Damn, y’all: Ukraine is white and mostly Christian: Wonder how he feels about, say, South Korea or Kenya? Assuming he has any knowledge of those countries.
He’s already proved himself risibly ignorant when he referred to Britain as “ the first Islamist country ” with nuclear weapons. You may know Vance from his 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” in which he congratulates himself for surviving Appalachian deprivation and his mother’s drug addiction to become a venture capital bro. He trashes the poor people he grew up with, dismissing them as a bunch of lazy losers who failed, unlike him, to get into Yale Law School.
You may also know Vance from the insults he once heaped on the short-fingered vulgarian: “reprehensible,” “an idiot,” “a total fraud,” “a moral disaster,” “cultural heroin,” and “one of USA’s most hated, villainous, douchey celebs.” Sounds about right, doesn’t it? But in 2021, Vance was running for U.S.
Senate and needed Trump’s endorsement, so he slunk down to Mar-a-Largo, prostrated himself on the floor between the boxes of classified documents, and begged forgiveness from the man he once referred to as “America’s Hitler.” That’s just the kind of moral fiber we want to see in the vice president of the United States. ‘Class war’ But Vance is not only a wholly owned Trumper, he’s in thrall to “Project 2025,” embracing the racism, the cruelty, the science-denial, the arrogance, the authoritarianism, and especially the misogyny.
My God, the misogyny: Vance is anti-choice (of course) and wants to ban abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest, calling a pregnancy resulting from a crime “inconvenient” while piously declaring “two wrongs don’t make a right.” He blames the “sexual revolution” for liberating all these dang women from their God-ordained roles as incubators. He’s against no-fault divorce, once suggesting women stay in violent marriages for the sake of the family.
He disapproves of working women and has said universal day care is “ class war against normal people .” His wife, Usha Vance, a high-powered corporate litigator, has just quit her job, but you wonder who looked after their three kids while she was out making big money. No doubt Vance would argue that his family is different.
Special, even though Usha Vance, daughter of Indian immigrants, may be in for a rough campaign ride. White supremacists are throwing little tantrums because Trump’s running mate is married to Hindu. On his podcast, Baby Nazi Nick Fuentes huffed, “Do we really expect that the guy who has an Indian wife and named their kid Vivek is going to support white identity?” But a little hatred directed at his wife and kids won’t stop the ambitious Vance.
He knows how to weaponize spite and stupidity. Make America Hungary For example, did you know the Democrats who run the country are “ childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too”? This will come as a shock to the Bidens, Kamala Harris and Douglas Emhoff, Sen. and Ms.
Charles Schumer, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigeig and husband Chasten, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his wife Evan Ryan, Attorney General Merrick Garland and his wife Lynn, who all together have 12 children and many, many dogs . I didn’t trawl through the entire cabinet, but even a cursory glance reveals a distinct lack of childlessness and a sad scarcity of cats: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has one kid and four pups, for God’s sake. But why let reality get in the way of childish insults? J.
D. Vance certainly won’t. He’s on a mission to make America not so much great again (again) but to make America Hungary He’s a Viktor Orbán wannabe, and if he gets anywhere nearer the Oval Office than the VIP tour, we will soon find ourselves living in a cross between Budapest and Gilead , a land of so-called “Christian conservative governance” where LGBTQ people have few rights, women have no rights over their own bodies, and none of us are free to read and think what we like.
Orbán and Vance are agreed: Education and the arts should be instruments of state propaganda. Of course, our own Ronbo concurs, as he demonstrated when he vetoed funding for museums, music, and theater with “sex stuff” (present only in his impoverished imagination) and destroyed the once-distinguished New College of Florida. If he doesn’t get a Fox gig, maybe Ronbo will become Minister of Information in a Vance regime.
On the other hand, ole J.D. might want to slow down and consider whether being Trump’s vice-president is really worth the butt-kissing, boot-licking, and general humiliation.
He might consider the danger. He might want to remember what happened with Trump’s last VP. On Jan.
6, MAGA insurrections erected a gallows at the Capitol, determined to hang Mike Pence . Trump had no intention of stopping them. In fact, he thought it was a fine idea.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.
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