Top Democrats are pushing for using the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential campaign, with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to take the ultimate decision.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, enacted in the wake of the Civil War, bars a citizen from holding office if they have engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” against the United States “or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” In an interview with MSNBC on Sunday, Mr. Schiff insisted that the 14th Amendment case against President Trump is a “valid argument.”
The law “doesn’t require that you be convicted of insurrection. It just requires that you have engaged in these acts,” he said. “It’s a disqualification from holding office … And it fits Donald Trump to a T.”
Mr. Schiff thinks the law will be tested when a secretary of state “either refuses to put him on the ballot or puts him on the ballot and is challenged by a litigant. I would imagine that it would go up to the Supreme Court. And that’s the big question mark through all this—what will the Supreme Court do?”
“There are prominent constitutional scholars as well as prominent progressive scholars who believe that he should be disqualified. But will the court take that step? Ultimately, only time will tell.”
Another Democrat, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), said in a Sunday interview with ABC that there is a “powerful argument” to be made for removing President Trump from the 2024 ballot.
“In my view, the attack on the Capitol that day was designed for a particular purpose at a particular moment, and that was to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power” as outlined in the U.S. Constitution.
“My sense is it’s probably going to get resolved in the courts,” he said. “But, you know, I think what we have to focus on in our side is we just got to win in 2024.”
Mr. Kaine also slammed 2024 Republican presidential contenders for agreeing to vote for President Trump even if he were to be convicted of a crime in any of the multiple indictments.
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