OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A leading Democrat has been captured on video discussing a plan to deny GOP nominee Donald Trump the presidency should he win a second term in November on his third run for the White House.
Rep. Jamie Rasken of Maryland, the ranking member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, mentioned invoking Clause 3 of the 14th Amendment — the ‘insurrection’ clause — and also used the term “civil war” as well as the need for “bodyguards” should Congress move to deny Trump his rightful victory.
“What can be put into the Constitution can slip away from you very quickly. And the greatest example going on right now before our very eyes is Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which they’re just disappearing with a magic wand, as if it doesn’t exist, even though it could not be clearer what it’s stating,” Raskin said, adding this chilling remark: “They want to kick it to Congress. So it’s going to be up to us on January 6, 2025, to tell the rampaging Trump mobs that he’s disqualified, and then we need bodyguards.”
Raskin then criticized the Supreme Court for its alleged reluctance to interpret the 14th Amendment as he believes it should. “For everybody in civil war conditions, all because the nine justices, not all of them, but these justices who have not many cases to look at every year, not that much work to do, a huge staff, great protection, simply do not want to do their job and interpret what the great 14th Amendment means,” Raskin, one of the chamber’s most far-left members, added.
In posting the video, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk noted: “Jamie Raskin is saying that congress will STOP Trump from taking office even if he’s chosen by the voters. This is extremely dangerous. Every Democrat needs to be on the record about this immediately.”
WATCH:
Jamie Raskin is saying that congress will STOP Trump from taking office even if he’s chosen by the voters.
This is extremely dangerous. Every Democrat needs to be on the record about this immediately. pic.twitter.com/9IwRoGrrQu
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 5, 2024
To be sure, Raskin isn’t the first to entertain the notion of denying Trump the White House if he wins. A piece in the left-wing pub The Atlantic in February discussed the same strategy: using the 14th Amendment to justify Democrats’ refusal to certify Trump’s win:
Near the end of the Supreme Court’s oral arguments about whether Colorado could exclude former President Donald Trump from its ballot as an insurrectionist, the attorney representing voters from the state offered a warning to the justices—one evoking the January 6 riot that had set the case in motion.
By this point in the hearing, the justices had made clear that they didn’t like the idea of allowing a single state to kick Trump out of the presidential race, and they didn’t appear comfortable with the Court doing so either. Sensing that Trump would likely stay on the ballot, the attorney, Jason Murray, said that if the Supreme Court didn’t resolve the question of Trump’s eligibility, “it could come back with a vengeance”—after the election, when Congress meets once again to count and certify the votes of the Electoral College.
Murray and other legal scholars say that, absent clear guidance from the Supreme Court, a Trump win could lead to a constitutional crisis in Congress. Democrats would have to choose between confirming a winner many of them believe is ineligible and defying the will of voters who elected him. Their choice could be decisive: As their victory in a House special election in New York last week demonstrated, Democrats have a serious chance of winning a majority in Congress in November, even if Trump recaptures the presidency on the same day. If that happens, they could have the votes to prevent him from taking office.
Trump has never been charged with insurrection, much less convicted of that crime, which formed the basis of the high court’s decision to bar states from removing him from their ballots for that reason.
