Donald Trump's campaign will attack the Democrats for conducting a “coup” if Joe Biden quits the presidential race, the GOP campaign co-chair told The Daily Beast on Thursday.
The former president's campaign for president will try to throw the charge leveled at him over the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection back in Democrats’ faces, Chris LaCivita told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
“Here’s what’s fascinating about it,” LaCivita said as he mingled on the convention floor in Milwaukee. “You are watching a coup. Literally. In front of your eyes.”
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LaCivita, the architect with Susie Wiles of Trump’s 2024 campaign, offered the first insight into how Republicans will deal with a new Democratic candidate as Biden appeared increasingly likely to accede to calls to step aside.
The attack as a “coup plotter” will be matched with a playbook that continues to attack Biden’s record especially if Biden is succeeded by his vice president, Kamala Harris.
The campaign will run the same strategy if Harris takes over, he said. Biden has already given Republicans too much fodder, he acknowledged. They will also demand that Biden step down as president if he won’t run. That would give them extra ammunition to attack Harris as a sitting president who benefited from a “coup.”
“It’s Joe Biden,” he added, even if the nominee will not, in fact, be Joe Biden, should he step aside.
“You can’t say you’re cognitively impaired and not able to run for president and then continue to be president,” LaCivita said, repeating a message the campaign and its surrogates have been banging like a drum. “If you’re going to step down as a candidate for president because of cognitive reasons, then you have to step down as president.”
It’s a notable escalation from LaCivita’s assessment earlier in the day when he told Politico that Biden potentially bowing out was tantamount to the Democrats “deposing” a sitting president.
LaCivita claimed the campaign intends to remain civil and refrain from personal attacks on Harris should she become the replacement nominee. (Remember, they are the party of “unity” now.) No nicknames, no memes, nothing but business.
“I don't know what slang we use other than language that's built around our budget and our message,” LaCivita said with a light chuckle. “But Kamala, if it's Kamala Harris, it doesn't matter.”
LaCivita sounded like a Republican who has at least begun to entertain the idea of being “coconut-pilled,” ready for a post-Biden campaign. (Coconut pilled has become a reference to Harris inexplicably using an anecdote about coconut trees in speeches.)
When asked by The Daily Beast how the campaign would respond to the Democratic argument for Biden staying in office—that he would be an elder statesman putting country over party, able to govern but not able to withstand the rigors of campaigning for the job—the top Trump official’s inner Virginian came out to play.
“That dog don’t hunt,” he said before walking toward the direction of the Trump VIP booth.
