With his "unconstitutional" remarks, Trump fuels worries. Harris conversation

As he advances the argument that Vice President Harris's rise to become the Democratic candidate is in some way illegal, the former president is alarming his detractors and raising the possibility that he is preparing to challenge an election setback, as he did in 2020.

Trump has made repeated attempts to paint Harris's replacement of President Biden as the Democratic nominee as sinister, comparing it to a "coup" and asserting in recent days that it might not be legal because Harris did not finish first in the primary election. 

Republicans who oppose Trump, along with Biden and some Democrats, have implied that the former president's statements are meant to raise questions about the outcome of November's election in the event that Harris wins.

"One thing is certain for us. Trump is unbeatable. According to former Trump national security advisor John Bolton, "if he is not the winner of 2024 as in 2020, it must be because he was treated unfairly, yet again" on CNN.

Bolton continued, "This is why people need to start thinking more now about how to deny Trump the ability to try and throw the process into chaos again the day after the election, if he loses."

On July 21, Biden declared he will not run for office again. Democratic support for Harris grew swiftly, and last week, after delegate voting, she was formally recognized as the party's nominee.

Trump, who was ahead of Biden in the polls and seemed certain to win in November, has stated time and time again that the president was removed by force and referred to it as a "coup." Recently, he has questioned whether it is constitutional for Democrats to have replaced Biden with Harris, especially in light of the fact that Harris is seemingly gaining ground on him in recent surveys.

This week, Trump asserted that Biden's presidency was "unconstitutionally STOLEN from him" in a Truth Social post. 

At a news conference on Thursday, Trump declared, "From a constitutional standpoint, from any standpoint you look at, they took the presidency away." 

When asked to explain why he believed it to be unlawful, Trump cited Harris's lack of backing during the Democratic primary, including her 2020 campaign.

It's unbelievable that someone can receive no votes, lose in the primary election (she was the first out of 14 or 15 contenders), and then be chosen to run for president. In my opinion, it is truly unconstitutional. Maybe it's not, Trump said.

Former Obama White House senior advisor David Axelrod wrote on X that Trump's remarks were "laying the predicate to reject the results of an election he now fears he may lose."

Though analysts predicted that such an attempt to replace Biden on the ballot would be unlikely to succeed in the courts, several Republicans had hinted in July that any attempt to do so may encounter legal obstacles.

This week, the Canton Repository revealed that an Ohio man who declared he would vote for Trump had filed a lawsuit to stop Harris from taking Biden's place on the ballot. Parties have until September 1st to nominate their candidate, according to the Ohio secretary of state's office.

According to Sonia Gipson Rankin, a law professor at the University of New Mexico, Trump is implying that people aren't having a voice since they supported Biden in the primary and he won't be on the ballot. 

She pointed out that Biden's name was not printed on any ballots, and Democratic delegates never formally supported him as the party's choice in a roll call vote.

The RNC and former President Trump will need to choose whether to devote resources to this matter during this shortened campaign period, according to Rankin. "Another issue will be who has standing to sue." "State courts have their own rules, which frequently ensure that major party nominees automatically appear on the ballot, while federal courts have particularly strict requirements for standing."

Trump's statements will be keenly observed given what transpired following his election loss in 2020. Trump questioned the validity of mail-in and absentee votes for a large portion of 2020, and in the weeks following Election Day, he claimed the results were manipulated or illegitimate. He filed many lawsuits, some of which even reached the Supreme Court, but all were dismissed for lack of supporting documentation.

The rioting that broke out at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, as a result of Trump's accusations, saw demonstrators engage in violent altercations with law officers and rush the building in an effort to halt the certification of Biden's victory. Trump faces criminal charges in connection with his attempts to rig the 2020 election.

In the 2024 election cycle, the former president declared that he would accept the outcome provided he thought the election was "honest."

Trump stated on Thursday, "Of course there will be a peaceful transfer, and there was last time." "And the transfer will happen amicably. All I can hope for is that the elections will be held honestly.

In his first in-person interview since deciding not to seek reelection, Biden expressed his lack of confidence that, should Trump lose, there will be a peaceful handover of power in January of next year.

"No, I'm not at all confident if Trump wins. "I mean, if Trump loses, I'm not confident at all," Biden said on "CBS Sunday Morning," correcting himself after making a mistake.

Biden went on, "He means what he says." "We don't consider him to be real. He truly does mean it.