OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Democrats are getting desperate to keep former President Donald Trump from becoming president again.
They have introduced legislation that has virtually no chance of passing that would bar him from the presidency again.
“Donald Trump very clearly engaged in an insurrection on January 6, 2021 with the intention of overturning the lawful and fair results of the 2020 election,” Rhode Island Democrat Rep. David Cicilline, the main sponsor of the legislation, said. “You don’t get to lead a government you tried to destroy.”
“Even Mitch McConnell admits that Trump bears responsibility, saying on the Senate floor that ‘[t]here’s no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,'” he said. “The 14th Amendment makes clear that based on his past behavior, Donald Trump is disqualified from ever holding federal office again and, under Section 5, Congress has the power to pass legislation to implement this prohibition.”
Salon reported.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars from federal office anyone who, “having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, 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.”
Section 5 states that “Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”
Cicilline introduced the new bill with the original backing of 40 House Democrats, including Reps. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Barbara Lee, D-Calif.
Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer yucked it up and trashed former President Donald Trump during a meal and interview with CNN that was broadcast this week.
CNN’s Jamie Gangel sat down with the two Democrats at the Chinese restaurant Hunan Dynasty in Washington, D.C., for what she billed as a “first-ever joint interview” with the two top Democrats.
“I want to talk about how the two of you navigated working with former President Trump,” Gangel said at one point.
“We had a good time,” Schumer responded with a sarcastic chuckle.
Gangel then noted that Pelosi “got under” Trump’s skin, which happened frequently.
“Was there a strategy when you went into a meeting?” Gangel asked. “Was there a good cop/bad cop?”
While picking food out of her teeth with her tongue, Pelosi criticized Trump’s inaugural comments.
“So I’m thinking, ‘How is he going to begin?’” Pelosi noted. “Is he going to quote the Constitution, American history, [a] poet, the Bible?” She then attempted to mock the former president by lowering her head and her hands, as if speaking at a podium.
“‘You know, I won the popular vote,’” she said, mimicking Trump. “And I said, ‘Mr. President, that’s just not true.”
“We sort of set him up, instinctively. We didn’t plan this,” Schumer said in reference to the first government shutdown that took place under Trump’s watch.“Chuck was masterful,” Pelosi remarked. “He was masterful.”
“She set him up so I could go in for the kill,” Schumer added.
“He’s talking to [Trump] about the government shutdown and about the immigrants and the rest,” Pelosi said. “And he says, ‘I take ownership.’”
Schumer added: “So I said, ‘Mr. President, will you own the shutdown?’”
“‘Yes,” Trump replied, “I will.’”
Following last month’s midterm elections, which ultimately saw Democrats keep and then pad their majority by a single vote, Schumer said that served as vindication for the party’s agenda and he would continue pursuing it amid sky-high inflation, a chaotic southwestern border, and rising interest rates.
“With the races now called in Arizona and Nevada, Democrats will have a majority again in the Senate. And I will be the majority leader,” Schumer said, per Fox News Digital. “This election is a victory, a victory and a vindication for Democrats, our agenda, and for the America and for the American people.”
He went on to credit his party’s “terrific candidates,” “our agenda and our accomplishments,” and the “American people who rejected the anti-democratic, extremist MAGA Republicans” in helping keep the upper chamber in Democratic hands.
“Our candidates Catherine Cortez Masto, Mark Kelly, Maggie Hassan and John Fetterman, and Raphael Warnock are just fine human beings who really care about people who have the understanding of how to get things done. And those who have been in the Senate have already accomplished great things,” Schumer said, adding that voters voters “believed in what we got done, and it stood in contrast to the other party.”
