These people just won’t learn their lesson, will they? Over the past year, there have been plenty of examples demonstrating that Democrats’ obsession with former President Donald Trump will eventually contribute to their undoing in November.
But, they just can’t quit him.
Amid the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol building, the Democrats and their close friends and allies in the activist media have been looking for novel ways to use the incident against Republicans. But a recent report from The Hill revealed that “a handful of Democrats, constitutional scholars and pro-democracy advocates” are seeking to use a post-Civil War amendment to prevent Trump from ever holding public office again.
“Calls for Congress to take steps to strip Trump of his eligibility, which reached a crescendo in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot, have since decreased,” according to The Hill. “But those who remain engaged on the issue say discussions about applying Section 3 of the 14th Amendment have been ongoing.”
Laurence Tribe, a constitutional expert at Harvard Law School, told The Hill that “the idea” of barring Trump from public office “has waxed and waned.” He said:
“I hear it being raised with considerable frequency these days both by media commentators and by members of Congress and their staffs, some of whom have sought my advice on how to implement Section 3.”
The Hill conducted an analysis that found about a dozen Democratic lawmakers “have spoken either publicly or privately over the last year about how Section 3 of the 14th Amendment might apply to those who engaged in insurrection on Jan. 6.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who served as a House manager during the second effort to impeach President Trump under the pretense that he incited the riot, has been leading the charge to prohibit him from holding office. He claimed the former president was “right in the bullseye middle of [the group who rioted].”
In February of last year, Raskin told ABC News that “[t]he point is that the constitutional purpose is clear, to keep people exactly like Donald Trump and other traitors to the union from holding public office.”
However, there is debate over whether Democrats could use Section 3 to target Trump.
From The Hill:
Most constitutional scholars who spoke to The Hill think the provision is not “self-executing.” In practical terms, that means applying Section 3 to Trump would require an additional step by lawmakers to make the 14th Amendment operative.
Some scholars believe that Congress, by a simple majority in both chambers, could act on its own to find Trump engaged in insurrection, which would implicate the constitutional provision. Under the 14th Amendment, restoring Trump’s eligibility would then require a supermajority vote.
Other experts, like Tribe of Harvard, say Congress would need to go further, either by establishing a neutral fact-finding body to determine whether Trump engaged in insurrection under Section 3, or assigning that fact-finding role to a federal court.
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) last year introduced a bill that would allow the attorney general to try to persuade a three-judge panel that the former president violated the provision and should not be able to seek office again. Leftist activists and organizations are attempting to work from the outside to keep Trump from running again. A supposed free democracy group called Free Speech For People has launched a campaign to push state election officials to apply the 14th Amendment to the former president if he decides to run again. This would stop Trump’s name from appearing on the ballot.
However, states are the ones that would decide whether to use the 14th Amendment against Trump and would likely decide against it. This reality does not seem to deter the organization. John Bonifaz, the organization’s president, told The Hill that his group would file legal action against states refusing to comply with its request. “So if a secretary of state does not follow the mandate of Section 3, the 14th Amendment, we will bring this matter in court,” he said.
It is not likely any of these efforts will succeed. Anyone with a modicum of common sense can see this is a futile, if not desperate, measure being pursued by people who check under their beds each night before they go to sleep to make sure the Orange Man isn’t there to get them.
But again, this is just yet another way the left seeks to weaponize the Jan. 6 riot, and it shows these folks are not going to leave any stone unturned when it comes to finding ways to wield the incident as a political cudgel. Even though this tactic will surely fail, it bespeaks a recognition on the part of the Democrats that they do not have much hope for winning in November — and it also demonstrates they have not yet figured out that making Trump their focal point is going to blow up in their faces.
Source: This post first appeared on RedState
