It was no shock Tuesday night when Donald Trump’s “big announcement” at Mar-a-Lago was that he was declaring a run for the presidency in 2024. A lot of Republicans have moved on and are waiting for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to declare, but there’s plenty of time for that.
As we said, we would have welcomed a serious investigation into what went wrong on January 6, including failures among law enforcement and the FBI (which are being left out of the select committee’s final report). We just learned that the FBI had eight informants embedded with the Proud Boys who apparently did nothing to stop them. Why wasn’t Ray Epps arrested for incitement to riot while grandmothers taking selfies were arrested and tried for “parading”? Why did Ashli Babbitt’s family have to sue to learn the name of the man who shot and killed her?
As we all know, though, the January 6 hearings quickly revealed their overarching purpose: to prevent Trump from holding office again.
If you want to make the point that Trump, as an insurrectionist, is disqualified for running for office, you’ll have to get in line:
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars anyone from holding office who “engaged in insurrection" against the United States.
This isn't some obscure provision. A judge in New Mexico just used it against an insurrectionist county commissioner.
It should apply to Donald Trump, too. pic.twitter.com/bziyP17YhR
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) November 15, 2022
Donald Trump led an insurrection against the United States in violation of his oath to uphold the Constitution. He is permanently disqualified from holding any state or federal office, per the 14th Amendment, Section 3.
— Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) November 16, 2022
NEW: Donald Trump faces an unprecedented effort to disqualify him from being on the ballot again over his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol, raising the specter of legal chaos in the 2024 election long before voters go to the polls https://t.co/zf2I9Du6vd
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) November 16, 2022
The 14th Amendment features language barring officials who took an oath to the Constitution from serving if they engaged in insurrection.
Advocates ran post-Jan. 6 test runs of this provision to try to disqualify Trump allies, with mixed results https://t.co/zf2I9DbXh5
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) November 16, 2022
There's no uniform process to challenge someone's eligibility to be on a ballot and hold office. Absent action by Congress, we're looking at a potential patchwork of legal action that risks what one expert warned could turn into a "constitutional crisis" https://t.co/zf2I9Du6vd
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) November 16, 2022
In post-Jan. 6 cases involving 14th Amend. claims against GOP officials, challengers largely failed to keep candidates off of ballots (with one notable exception), but they point to rulings they won along the way that could help future Trump challengeshttps://t.co/zf2I9DtyFF
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) November 16, 2022
A few Democrats in Congress have proposed bills aimed at explicitly providing a uniform enforcement mechanism for the insurrection disqualification, trying to head off potential legal chaos under the status quo, but they haven't seen any movement so far https://t.co/zf2I9DbXh5
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) November 16, 2022
Asked if there's a scenario where Congress could refuse to certify a Trump electoral win on insurrection disqualification grounds, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a sponsor of pending Section 3 legislation, she said she wasn't sure but wouldn't rule it out https://t.co/zf2I9DtyFF
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) November 16, 2022
Rep. David Cicilline has already written up legislation to bar Trump from office, saying the January 6 select committee proved he incited an insurrection.
Rep. David Cicilline (a former Trump impeachment manager) is circulating a letter to Dems rounding up support for legislation to bar Trump from office under the 14th Amendment, per copy I obtained: pic.twitter.com/BsDNbhjPUg
— Nicholas Wu (@nicholaswu12) November 16, 2022
Cicilline says “The legislation details testimony and evidence demonstrating how Donald Trump engaged in insurrection against the United States.” pic.twitter.com/vMIuKQLdfZ
— Nicholas Wu (@nicholaswu12) November 16, 2022
Rest assured, if Donald Trump announces he’s running for the presidency, we'll file a challenge under the 14th Amendment, which bars people who engaged in or supported an insurrection from holding government office.https://t.co/Ev27HHowqx
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) November 8, 2022
All of these people and organizations are being applauded, but the public wants more: They also want all of the members of Congress who participated in the insurrection by voicing objections to the certification, as Democrats did in 2000, 2004, and 2016, removed from office.
This editor would prefer a DeSantis run — Trump just brings so much baggage to the table, like this. That said, we hope all of their objections are laughed off … there was no “insurrection.”
A good question, by the way:
. @ElonMusk, there is a declared candidate for President of the United States who has been banned from Twitter, while the incumbent Joe Biden is allowed to tweet every day. Will Twitter allow the challenger to use the platform as well in the 2024 election?
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) November 16, 2022
Mean Tweets 2024!
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Related:
January 6 committee staffers told final report will focus mostly on Donald Trump https://t.co/8r67utrrEL
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) November 12, 2022
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