Donald Trump has been peddling ridiculous election conspiracy theories for months. He’s been talking about being reinstated to the presidency for months. He’s been called for some sort of catch-up election for months. But on Saturday morning, the Republican broke new ground with a specific argument.
The former president, through his social media platform, argued that his fictitious claims about systemic voter fraud are not only true, they are so important that they “enable the termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution.
In other words, as Trump has described it, the rule of law and our constitutional system of government are good, but in this case they should be set aside in order to advance his ridiculous electoral conspiracy theories. It is an argument based on the idea that the laws that serve as the foundation of the United States must be abandoned, at least temporarily, because the former president has wild ideas about the elections he lost two years ago. year.
This did not go unnoticed. As the controversy escalated yesterday, the former president returned to his platform to insist that he hadn’t written what he had written:
“The fake news is actually trying to convince the American people that I said I wanted to ‘end’ the Constitution. It’s just more DISINFORMATION AND LIES, just like RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA and all their other hoaxes and scams. What I said was that when there is “MASSIVE AND WIDESPREAD FRAUD AND DECEPTION”, as was proven irrefutably in the 2020 presidential election, Steps must be taken immediately to CORRECT THE FAKE. Only FOOLS would disagree with this and accept STOLEN ELECTIONS. MAGA!”
This was soon followed by equally hysterical missives in which Trump continued on the same insane course. “PUTTING IT SIMPLELY, IF AN ELECTION IS INREFUTABLELY FRAUDULENT, IT SHOULD GO TO THE FAIR WINNER OR, AT A MINIMUM, BE RE-DONE,” the Republican wrote. “IN CASE OF OPEN AND INFORMED FRAUD, THERE SHOULD BE NO TIME LIMITS FOR CHANGE!”
At this point, we could spend some time exploring the obvious fact that the 2020 election wasn’t “fraudulent” and that the lopsided conspiracy theories haven’t been “irrefutably proven.” We could also take a few paragraphs to explain that there is no legal mechanism for the loser of an election to gain power – or a second chance in a redone election – more than two years later for no reason.
But let’s not overlook the fact that the former president also took a moment to blame the controversy, not on what he wrote, but on news outlets for alerting the public to what he wrote. As Trump said, “Fake News” spreads “misinformation” and “lies.”
Except it wasn’t just reporters who saw his “firing” rhetoric as outrageous.
A handful of Republicans appeared on Sunday shows and went into hiding when asked about Trump’s sweeping missives, but yesterday, as NBC News reported, a larger group of GOP lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill and commented on the former president’s latest scandal.
GOP senators on Monday criticized Donald Trump’s statement over the weekend that the Constitution could be terminated to reinstate him as president, though most did not extend their repudiations to his 2024 candidacy. Senate Republicans who weighed in on Trump’s social truth remarks on Saturday focused more on the importance of upholding the Constitution.
As far as I know, no GOP official defended Trump’s position or took his attempted clarification seriously, but there was a range of reaction within the party.
Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, for example, was pretty blunt. “To suggest the termination of the Constitution is not only a betrayal of our oath of office, it is an affront to our Republic,” the Republican wrote in a written statement. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, meanwhile, said Trump’s rhetoric was “irresponsible,” but he didn’t respond directly when asked if Trump’s statement should disqualify him from another candidacy. to the White House.
Similarly, Senate Minority Whip John Thune said “of course I disagree with that” when asked about Trump’s comments, but South Dakota didn’t. neither commented on the former president’s 2024 return bid, saying he “just wasn’t going to indicate.”
The result is messy, but simple: Republicans won’t defend what Trump wrote about subverting constitutional law, but they won’t consider the idea that the former president has disqualified himself. The obvious follow-up question still needs an answer, though: If calling for the “termination” of our constitutional system isn’t disqualifying for GOP officials, how far should Trump go?
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