UPDATE: Monday, Dec 5, 2022 · 6:41:28 PM +00:00 · Laura Clawson
Nice try, but no: Trump is not so much trying to walk back his statement as trying to deny he even said it, writing, in a new Truth Social post, “The Fake News is actually trying to convince the American People that I said I wanted to “terminate” the Constitution. This is simply more DISINFORMATION & LIES, just like RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, and all of their other HOAXES & SCAMS. What I said was that when there is ‘MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION,’ as has been irrefutably proven in the 2020 Presidential Election, steps must be immediately taken to RIGHT THE WRONG.”
And one of the steps he called for was “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” Which he wants us to pretend never happened.
Republican lawmakers are in evasion mode over Donald Trump’s explicit call to toss out the U.S. Constitution to get him back in the White House—but thanks to the media, Republicans don’t have too much to evade. When Trump was in office, Republicans typically fell back on the claim that they hadn’t heard whatever appalling thing he had most recently said, even when it was a tweet reporters could easily have read them in 15 seconds. Now, they’re acting like it doesn’t matter what Trump says because he’s not in office, even though he is in effect, if not officially, the leader of their party.
But it matters.
“So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION?” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”
RELATED STORY: Trump calls for a 'termination of all rules … even the Constitution' to install him as dictator
Campaign Action
Happily for the founders, the 2020 election was not false nor fraudulent nor marred by fraud and deception. It’s the aftermath that was marred by fraud and deception, and those came from the guy now calling for the Constitution to be tossed aside to put him back in office. Trump remains silent on how the founders would have felt about someone responding to an election loss by inciting an attack on the U.S. Capitol.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy are not feeling enough pressure over this quote to bother having their spokespeople comment on it.
On ABC’s This Week, Rep. David Joyce, chair of the Republican Governance Group, said he would “support whoever the Republican nominee is.” His dodge was that he doesn’t think Trump will “be able to get there,” so hey, even though he would support a guy who thinks we should terminate large chunks of the Constitution if that person happened to be the Republican presidential nominee, he doesn’t think it’s likely to happen.
No. Either you’re willing to support a candidate who wants to terminate the Constitution or you’re not willing to support a candidate who wants to terminate the Constitution. If your answer is “I’ll support him only in the unlikely event that he wins my party’s nomination,” then you’re willing to do it. Full stop.
George Stephanopoulos pressed Joyce on that, and he responded with a blizzard of evasion. “Well, you know, he says a lot of things. You have to take him in context,” Joyce said, as if there was some context in which “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution” means something else. “And I can't be really chasing every one of these crazy statements that come out about – from any of these candidates that come out,” he said, as if Trump is just some rando who happens to be running. Trump “has no ability to suspend the Constitution,” Joyce said, as if that excuses him from responsibility for potentially putting Trump in a position to try to do just that.
On CBS News, Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan whiffed the question, getting Rep. Michael Turner to condemn Trump’s statement but failing to ask him if he’d support Trump for president if Trump wins the nomination. Similarly, on CNN’s State of the Union, Jake Tapper elicited disapproving comments from Rep.-elect Mike Lawler, but moved along immediately after Lawler said, “I think the former president would be well-advised to focus on the future, if he is going to run for president again,” rather than following up with the obvious question of what Lawler would do if Trump is the nominee.
Every Republican needs to be on the record about whether they would support a presidential nominee who had called for “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” Not whether they agree with the sentiment. Not whether they think Trump is likely to be the nominee. If he is, would they support him? If the answer isn’t a flat no, they’re telling us who they are.
We're now in the fourth week of election overtime and there is still tons more great news for Democrats to exult over on this episode of The Downballot.
Embedded Content
Nice try, but no: Trump is not so much trying to walk back his statement as trying to deny he even said it, writing, in a new Truth Social post, “The Fake News is actually trying to convince the American People that I said I wanted to “terminate” the Constitution. This is simply more DISINFORMATION & LIES, just like RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, and all of their other HOAXES & SCAMS. What I said was that when there is ‘MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION,’ as has been irrefutably proven in the 2020 Presidential Election, steps must be immediately taken to RIGHT THE WRONG.”
And one of the steps he called for was “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” Which he wants us to pretend never happened.
Republican lawmakers are in evasion mode over Donald Trump’s explicit call to toss out the U.S. Constitution to get him back in the White House—but thanks to the media, Republicans don’t have too much to evade. When Trump was in office, Republicans typically fell back on the claim that they hadn’t heard whatever appalling thing he had most recently said, even when it was a tweet reporters could easily have read them in 15 seconds. Now, they’re acting like it doesn’t matter what Trump says because he’s not in office, even though he is in effect, if not officially, the leader of their party.
But it matters.
“So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION?” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”
RELATED STORY: Trump calls for a 'termination of all rules … even the Constitution' to install him as dictator
Campaign Action
Happily for the founders, the 2020 election was not false nor fraudulent nor marred by fraud and deception. It’s the aftermath that was marred by fraud and deception, and those came from the guy now calling for the Constitution to be tossed aside to put him back in office. Trump remains silent on how the founders would have felt about someone responding to an election loss by inciting an attack on the U.S. Capitol.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy are not feeling enough pressure over this quote to bother having their spokespeople comment on it.
On ABC’s This Week, Rep. David Joyce, chair of the Republican Governance Group, said he would “support whoever the Republican nominee is.” His dodge was that he doesn’t think Trump will “be able to get there,” so hey, even though he would support a guy who thinks we should terminate large chunks of the Constitution if that person happened to be the Republican presidential nominee, he doesn’t think it’s likely to happen.
No. Either you’re willing to support a candidate who wants to terminate the Constitution or you’re not willing to support a candidate who wants to terminate the Constitution. If your answer is “I’ll support him only in the unlikely event that he wins my party’s nomination,” then you’re willing to do it. Full stop.
George Stephanopoulos pressed Joyce on that, and he responded with a blizzard of evasion. “Well, you know, he says a lot of things. You have to take him in context,” Joyce said, as if there was some context in which “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution” means something else. “And I can't be really chasing every one of these crazy statements that come out about – from any of these candidates that come out,” he said, as if Trump is just some rando who happens to be running. Trump “has no ability to suspend the Constitution,” Joyce said, as if that excuses him from responsibility for potentially putting Trump in a position to try to do just that.
On CBS News, Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan whiffed the question, getting Rep. Michael Turner to condemn Trump’s statement but failing to ask him if he’d support Trump for president if Trump wins the nomination. Similarly, on CNN’s State of the Union, Jake Tapper elicited disapproving comments from Rep.-elect Mike Lawler, but moved along immediately after Lawler said, “I think the former president would be well-advised to focus on the future, if he is going to run for president again,” rather than following up with the obvious question of what Lawler would do if Trump is the nominee.
Every Republican needs to be on the record about whether they would support a presidential nominee who had called for “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” Not whether they agree with the sentiment. Not whether they think Trump is likely to be the nominee. If he is, would they support him? If the answer isn’t a flat no, they’re telling us who they are.
We're now in the fourth week of election overtime and there is still tons more great news for Democrats to exult over on this episode of The Downballot.
Embedded Content