For weeks after the June 27 presidential debate, Democratic elected officials and party insiders tried to persuade President Joe Biden to drop out of the race. He bowed to the pressure on July 21 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the party's nominee.

Republicans described party efforts to replace Biden on the ticket this late in the campaign as a “coup” against the president.

Experts say Biden leaving the ticket, while unusual, doesn't meet the definition of a coup. That’s because Biden remains president until his term expires Jan. 20, and he wasn’t removed from the ballot by threat of violence or because of illegality. Replacing Biden on the ballot is not illegal.

“[Biden] was certainly pressured and persuaded—but by arguments, not at the point of a gun,” says Matthew Cleary, associate professor of political science.

He says it’s fair to ask questions about how this came about—including whether Democrats hid Biden’s cognitive decline and whether the party followed its own internal rules when selecting the nominee.

“But calling Biden’s decision a ‘coup’ does not clarify anything about all of this. It does not accurately reflect any part of what has happened here,” Cleary says.

Read more in the PolitiFact article, “Was Biden dropping out of the race a ‘coup’? Experts explain.”