Which party represents the greater threat to democracy? That's at least a debate worth having in an election, rather than "mirror mirror on the wall, who's the weirdest one of all?"

Donald Trump doesn't mind  having that debate, In an interview with Laura Ingraham earlier this week, Trump argued that the Democrats have abandoned democracy altogether to conduct a "coup" against Joe Biden. "They took the presidency away like he was a child," Trump declared:

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I'm the opposite of a threat to democracy. They're a threat to democracy.

I mean, look at what they just did: They took over the presidency.

This was a coup. Biden is a very angry man right now.

They took the presidency away like he was a child. pic.twitter.com/t19T2kFTyp

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) July 31, 2024

“I’m the opposite of a threat to democracy,” Trump said. “They’re a threat to democracy. I mean, look at what they just did. They just took over the presidency. This was a coup. Biden is a very angry man right now, you know that.”

“They took the presidency away. His wife didn’t want it to happen. They took the presidency away like he was a child,” Trump added.

Taking the nomination away from Biden isn't actually a coup, although it clearly is anti-democratic. Democrat leadership propped up a failing Biden by excluding any real competition in their primaries this year, which would have forced his cognitive decline into the open -- when their voters could do something about it. 

When Biden's own foolish decision to debate Trump exposed the cover-up of his cognitive infirmities, Democrats forced Biden to withdraw from the race despite the results of 50+ primaries and caucuses, all of which Biden won handily. And rather than just release the delegates to have a competitive open convention to democratically elect a new nominee, Democrats (with Biden's encouragement) rushed to anoint Kamala Harris and short-circuit the democratic process in place at their national convention.

And one has to wonder whether this was all planned as a way to short-circuit democracy:

This is absolutely the path her campaign and media will attempt: Hype her, carefully stage manager her, avoid as much scrutiny as possible, severely limit opportunities for mistakes, and ride it out. Three month honeymoon. It may work, it may not. But so far, it’s working. https://t.co/9UeDrm8Vba

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 31, 2024

Kamala may not survive three months of scrutiny, either. She hasn't yet held a press conference or done a major media interview, even a friendly one. And she just stiffed the National Association of Black Journalists at their convention, while Trump will go to engage the not-friendly assemblage and take their questions. 

Biden, however, remains president, so coup isn't the right word. Or does he? Trump doesn't think Biden's able to fulfill the duties of the office, and instead a cabal of aides are pulling the strings:

Ingraham asked Trump who he believes is calling the shots in the White House after Biden dropped out of the presidential campaign amid concerns about his mental and physical capabilities.

“A group of people that are fascists, communists, Marxists. They circle the beautiful resolute desk in the Oval Office,” Trump replied.

If this is true, then that would be a coup of sorts. But is it true? People have their suspicions since the June 27 debate, and Biden's week-long disappearing act with his withdrawal in the middle of it coming on Twitter raised even more suspicions. His Oval Office address didn't persuade many people that Biden has any cognitive gas in the tank, but he seemed to do better in Austin this week pushing his radical Supreme Court "reform" proposal. At least Biden seemed more himself on stage, but whether that's a consistent status is anyone's guess.

And all of the people who claim Biden's fully capable of finishing his term are the same people who covered up his cogntiv decline and insisted he could serve another four years.

That seems like a real threat to democracy, even for those who think Trump got reckless after the 2020 election and went too far with challenges, legal and otherwise. Those are points for legitimate criticism, and have been for more than three years. But Trump never canceled a single primary result nor anointed himself a major-party nominee without getting a single primary vote in support, either. So maybe we should have this debate.

I'll have more on this later in reference to Harris as well.