This article appears in the August 9, 2024 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
‘Soft Coup’? Party Establishment Sacrifices Biden To Save Permanent War Policy
[Print version of this article]
Aug. 4 —There is an old joke, often repeated in diplomatic circles, especially among officials from nations which have been targeted by the United States 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!
The events leading to the July 21 letter from President Joe Biden withdrawing 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 America. That donor class will be reinforced by the corporate media, run by the same pro-war forces. Despite the mythology of America as a democracy, these events confirm that Biden was removed by a “soft coup.” 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 United States and its NATO allies.
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 June 27 debate with Donald Trump, which triggered the decision to remove him. The central concern for those running the U.S. war machine is that former President Trump, if elected, might follow through on his pledge to end the NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. The establishment fear of a return of Trump to the White House, is that 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 showing that over 70% of the electorate believed Biden “too old” to serve four more years, and that nearly two-thirds of Democrats were 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 had 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 a July 5 interview with George Stephanopoulos opened the floodgates. Over the next two weeks, 36 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, decide the nominee.... Not the press, not the pundits, not the big donors.
His backers argued that he had 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.
This 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 had hosted a fundraiser for Biden, bringing in nearly $30 million. There are rumors that Clooney, who is close to former President Obama, may have been acting on Obama’s behalf in submitting his op-ed.
On July 16, all but one of 75 major Democratic Party donors participating on a Zoom call said Biden should drop out, while the largest super-PAC which had been supporting him announced that it had placed a hold on $90 million that had been raised for his campaign.
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 House 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.” This would mean that a determination had been reached that he 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, the letter of withdrawal was posted on X, and Biden was out of the race.
And 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.” This, from the same mob which had been denouncing him days before for his “stubborn” refusal to accept the inevitable!
Lost in the drivel about how “the system worked,” and “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: 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 Feb. 16. In warning that the United States 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 Russian President Putin in Europe and a strong U.S. presence in the Indo-Pacific region. Despite some expression of sympathy for the Palestinians being slaughtered by Israel, with full complicity of the Biden administration, Harris has defended Israel’s “right” to wipe out Hamas, while joining with Secretary of State Blinken in shedding crocodile tears for children of Palestine.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. implied in a July 23 address that Harris was installed in a coup by the party machine, which had 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,” and referred 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’s Jesse Watters on July 21, whether this was “a coup against Joe Biden,” the former President replied, “Yeah, sort of.” His choice for Vice President, J.D. Vance, chimed in with, “I think it is.”
In the 100 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 United States 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 America and European nations.
It is up to the citizens to demand that the United States break free of control of the corporate oligarchs and their commitment to endless wars, and act in the interests of its people.
