Lara Trump: Democrats plugging in new candidate would violate democratic process
Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump said Sunday the possibility of Democrats bypassing Vice President Harris and picking another candidate to replace President Biden, should he withdraw from the presidential race, would violate the democratic process.
Trump, who is the daughter-in-law of former President Trump, told Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo that Democrats have a "bad situation all around," following Biden's poor debate performance against her father-in-law last week.
"Joe Biden has said he's not going anywhere. His campaign came out right after that debate and said not only is he not quitting. They have committed to do the debate in September as well, which is shocking to hear," Trump said on "Sunday Morning Futures." "But Kamala Harris polls just about as bad, if not worse in a lot of cases, than Joe Biden."
"And so, they have a huge problem on their hands. If they remove Joe Biden from the ticket somehow and they do not have Kamala Harris as their nominee, and they try to plug someone else in, Maria, it is literally going against our democratic process here in this country," Trump continued.
Trump noted millions of American voters chose Biden in the Democratic primaries this year, earning him more than enough party delegates to be the party's presumptive presidential nominee.
"If they decide right here in the 11th hour to plug somebody else in, and it's not Kamala Harris, I can't think of a bigger assault to our democratic process than doing just that," Trump said.
Biden's lackluster performance at the presidential debate last week sounded alarm bells for many within the Democratic Party. Some Democrats have called on the president to step down following the disastrous debate showing, though no national officials have publicly joined these calls yet — and the Biden campaign has said he's not going anywhere.
Should Biden choose to remain in the 2024 race, he cannot be ousted at the Democratic National Convention in August since he has already won the primary. Democratic National Committee (DNC) rules require delegates that Biden won to pledge their support for his nomination unless Biden were to willingly decide to stand down.
Harris has been thrust into the political spotlight as a potential replacement should her boss choose to drop out of the race. Other potential replacements have included Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Regardless of whether it is Biden, Harris or someone else at the top of the ticket, Lara Trump said she is confident in her father-in-law's ability to secure the presidency.
"We had four years of Donald Trump. We know how secure our borders were. We know how much more money people had in their pockets, how much cheaper it was to go buy gas, how much safer we felt on the world stage when Donald Trump was there, and people want him back in office," she said.