Toobin: Claims That Kamala Harris's Nomination Is 'Unconstitutional' Are Baseless
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00:00We do need an investigation into irregularities, fraud.
00:04We do need a way forward together.
00:06Dozens of courts rejected those claims.
00:09Biden's win was certified.
00:11But for many Trumpers, their belief in a stolen election
00:14has never died.
00:16So some election watchers think Trump
00:18is angling for another excuse in case the vote, again,
00:23does not go his way.
00:24We know one thing for sure.
00:26Trump never loses.
00:27And so if he's not declared the winner of 2024, as in 2020,
00:32it must be because he was treated unfairly yet again.
00:37To return to the subject of the Supreme Court,
00:40yeah, maybe under some certain circumstances,
00:42they might come weighing in late.
00:44But legal analysts point out, when
00:46it comes to who's on the ballot, the courts
00:48have largely said, let the parties decide,
00:51let the ballots be cast, and let the voters make their pick.
00:54Anderson.
00:55Informant, thanks very much.
00:56We want to get some perspective on this now
00:57from bestselling author and former federal prosecutor
00:59Jeffrey Toobin.
01:00So is there any legal footing for this argument
01:03that it was unconstitutional for Harris to become the nominee?
01:06You know, Anderson, I try to give balanced answers whenever
01:09it's possible.
01:10But it's really not possible in a circumstance like this.
01:13This is a completely open and shut situation.
01:16Yes, it's true that the voters voted
01:20in the Democratic primaries for Joe Biden.
01:23Joe Biden has withdrawn as a candidate.
01:26So the delegates who were elected in those primaries
01:30now get to pick a different candidate.
01:32They have picked Kamala Harris.
01:36That's how the Democratic Party rules work.
01:39It makes sense.
01:40There is no impediment in the Democratic Party to this.
01:45And that's the end of the story.
01:46There is no legal impediment to Kamala Harris
01:49being the nominee in all 50 states.
01:53And just to be clear, I mean, the Constitution,
01:55which is what the former president is referring to,
01:58he's suddenly very interested in what's unconstitutional.
02:01The Constitution does not address the party nomination
02:03process, correct?
02:04No.
02:04I mean, there is a general provision
02:08in the Fifth and 14th Amendment that
02:09says the government has to act with due process of law.
02:13But that applies to the government's behavior.
02:18The Democratic Party is a private entity.
02:21And in any case, there is no argument
02:25that there was an absence of due process here.
02:28They had a candidate who won primaries
02:31who's not a candidate anymore.
02:33They have to pick someone else.
02:35They have picked someone else.
02:36That is not, there is no constitutional provision
02:41that would bar that under any circumstance.
02:45It also, I mean, the Democratic Party
02:47has layers and layers of rules and rules and rules.
02:51All of this has been thought out actually long
02:54before this ever happened.
02:55Right, and going back to when Ted Kennedy challenged
03:01Jimmy Carter in 1980, there was a big fight
03:05about how delegates could vote at the convention
03:09and whether they were bound by the results of primaries.
03:15But the key issue to remember also
03:18is that the only person who could ever challenge this,
03:21the only person who has standing
03:24to challenge Kamala Harris's nomination is Joe Biden
03:28because he would be the victim,
03:31but he has no interest in challenging it
03:33because he is now supporting Kamala Harris.
03:37So, you know, look, people can make claims
03:41and certainly Donald Trump has made untold thousands
03:46of legal claims both in public and in court filings
03:50that have been rejected over and over again,
03:53and no one's going to stop him from making claims.
03:55But those of us who try to, you know,
03:57inform people about the legitimacy of the claims,
04:00this one there's really no dispute about.
04:04The Democratic Party gets to decide who their candidate is,
04:07and they've decided on Kamala Harris.
04:10Right.