As President-elect Donald Trump’s highly anticipated return to the White House is less than a month away, some Democrats are proposing 11-hour measures to desperately prevent him from retaking power. Two liberal legal scholars recently published an op-ed in The Hill urging Congress to disqualify Trump’s massive electoral and popular vote victory in November and undermine the vote of over 77 million Americans.
As background, the left has argued that Trump should be barred from holding office based on the 14th Amendment, which states that “No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
Therefore, Evan Davis, the former president of the New York Bar Association and Obama ally David Schulte wrote in their joint article, “The unlikelihood of congressional Republicans doing anything that might elect Harris as president is obvious.” They further noted, “But Democrats need to take a stand against Electoral College votes for a person disqualified by the Constitution from holding office unless and until this disability is removed. No less is required by their oath to support and defend the Constitution.”
However, the opinion piece has sparked a wave of criticism from Republicans. Conservative commentator Ian Jaeger said, “BREAKING: Lawyers Evan A. Davis and David M. Schulte are calling on Congress to block Donald Trump’s Election victory. This is needs to be investigated.” Furthermore, political commentator Anthony Hughes wrote, “IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Controversial news source, The Hill, suggests that Congress use it’s power to BLOCK Trump from taking the Office of the President. This is not acceptable and they should be ashamed!”
Political analyst Mark Halperin reacted to the article, stating, “It seems ill-timed, not just not in the spirit of the holiday season, but also given where we are in the transition cycle … we’re gonna see more of this.” He continued, “I think the left has been a little bit shocked by the election results. And I think as the reality of January 20th gets closer, I think you’ll see more opinionizing just like this…But it also reflects a point of view that’s held by tens of millions of Americans … I think that you’re gonna see more manifestations like this as we get closer to inauguration day.”
Speaking to Newsweek about his controversial article, Schulte said, “I think members of Congress are becoming more aware of the issue by the hour, and they’re duty-bound to consider it as guardians of the Constitution. How they’ll react remains to be seen, both Democrats and Republicans. They’ve all taken the same oath of office.”
“We wrote the piece to give voice to the constitutional issue and describe the interrelationship among the events, the official forums that have touched the issues, and the law of the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act,” he added. “Congress will do what it does, and it has the power under section 3 to free Trump of the disability of disqualification by reason of insurrection. The politics are intense though the law is clear. Should Trump be certified, unless the disability is relieved his administration will labor under a cloud of illegitimacy.”
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Watch Halperin react to the article here: