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Are We Living Through A Coup? Or Something Else?

US President Donald Trump arrives for the Operation Warp Speed Vaccine Summit in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House in Washington, DC.
US President Donald Trump arrives for the Operation Warp Speed Vaccine Summit in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House in Washington, DC.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is the president-elect of the United States of America. It’s a fact. But President Donald Trump’s fight to overturn the results of the election has led some to wonder whether we’re in the middle of a coup attempt.

And yet, President Donald Trump is still trying to convince anyone who will listen that the 2020 election was the subject of widespread fraud and that thousands of ballots either were counted that shouldn’t have been or weren’t counted when they should have been (depending on whether he won or lost the state in question).

Republican leaders and politicians have been slow to come forward and confirm they believe President-elect Biden will assume the presidency in January. Many seem to be quite comfortable remaining silent as the president attempts to undermine confidence in the democratic process.

Is what’s happening now a very slow, very obvious coup? Does it matter what we call it? And if so, what does that mean for the country going forward?

Copyright 2020 WAMU 88.5

Kaity Kline
Kaity Kline is an Assistant Producer at Morning Edition and Up First. She started at NPR in 2019 as a Here & Now intern and has worked at nearly every NPR news magazine show since.
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