No, the Democrats haven't staged a coup in the U.S.

Context

On July 21, 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that he was stepping down from his campaign to run for re-election in the upcoming presidential elections amid concerns about his ailing health. After the president endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the presidential candidate, some social media users claimed that the U.S. had undergone a coup.

One user on X (formerly Twitter) posted, "Does anyone think it is hilarious that a U.S. president was removed in the kind of regime change operation that was reserved for other countries?"

Another user with a large following wrote, "We are watching a Coup in real time here in America, orchestrated by the Democrats, who have, for years told you Donald Trump was a threat to democracy." The tweet has been viewed over 136,000 times and reposted over 1,300 times.

Posts from a number of X users who are claiming that the Democratic Party has orchestrated a coup, ousting Biden from power. (Source: X/Composite by Logically Facts)

A coup d’état, also known as a coup, can be defined as an operation in which a relatively small group of people suddenly attempt to take over the government through extra-legal means. Recent examples of successful coups include the August 2023 coup in Gabon and the February 2021 coup in Myanmar, both of which were orchestrated by the military. 

U.S. political scholars have also argued that the January 6, 2022, riot at the U.S. Capitol Building by Trump supporters qualifies as an attempted coup.

But Biden has not been ousted from power. He is still the president of the U.S., and Kamala Harris has not yet been confirmed as the Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential elections.

What we found

Biden's announcement letter makes it clear that although he is no longer running for re-election, he still intends to remain in office until the end of his presidency. Biden wrote, "while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term." 

In other words, Joe Biden is still the president of the U.S. This is made clear by the official White House website, which names him as president and Harris as vice president. 

While it is unprecedented for a president to drop out at this stage of the election cycle, Biden is not the first sitting president in U.S. history to not run for re-election. Other one-term presidents include Lyndon B. Johnson, Harry Truman, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, and Calvin Coolidge. 

Andy Craig is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and the director of election policy at the Rainey Centre. He told Logically Facts that while the label coup is applicable to the January 6 Capitol riot because it was an attempt to illegally seize the presidency, it is not applicable to Biden's decision to step down. 

"Nothing about Biden's withdrawal was unlawful. People are free to advocate that a candidate should drop out, and candidates are free to do so," he explained. "There is nothing illegal about that; it's just politics."

Further, while Kamala Harris officially took over from Biden's campaign for re-election, she is not yet the official Democratic nominee. In a statement published on July 21, Democratic National Convention (DNC) chair Jaime Harrison said that the party will undertake a "transparent and orderly process" to formally select a presidential nominee who will contest the November elections. "This process will be governed by established rules and procedures of the Party," the statement said. 

The elected nominee will be announced during the DNC, which will be held in Chicago from August 19-22. The nomination process involves around 4,700 Democratic delegates voting virtually from a list of candidates. Some of the suggested candidates include California Governor Gavin Newsom, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. 

The party announced that it aims to have finalized its nominee by August 7. Biden already had about 4,000 delegates pledged to vote for him, but his decision to drop out of the race has freed them to vote for a different candidate of their choosing. 

The verdict

Social media users have speculated that the U.S. has undergone a coup following Biden's decision to step down from his campaign for re-election. However, there has not been a regime change. Biden is still the president of the U.S., and the Democratic Party has yet to confirm its official nominee for the presidential election later this year. We have, therefore, rated this claim as false.

Follow Logically Facts' coverage and fact-checking of the U.S. Election 2024 here.