Opinion columnists for The Hill called on Congress to invoke the 14th Amendment disqualification to block President-elect Trump from taking office next month.
In a column published Thursday, Evan A. Davis and David M. Schulte argued that the 14th amendment enables Congress to object to the electoral votes since they consider Trump, in their words, “an oath-breaking insurrectionist.”
Article 3 of the 14th Amendment bars former officeholders who “engaged in insurrection” or has “given aid or comfort to the enemies” from holding public office again. The restriction can be removed by a two-thirds vote in each House.
Citing this disqualification, Davis, a former editor-in-chief of the Columbia Law Review, and Schulte, former editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal, claimed that Trump is ineligible to be president. The pair called on Congress to take action when they meet in a joint session to formally count the electoral votes next week.
“Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution and not the government. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming,” they argued. “The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel.”…
The column garnered swift and fierce backlash online, with critics accusing the authors of “endorsing insurrection.”
“Oh, look. Democrats want to steal the election and invalidate the will of the American people. Threat to Democracy,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung wrote on X.
“You people are sick,” Eric Trump replied….
The Fox article does not note that Congressional Democrats have rejected calls to object on grounds that Trump is disqualified when electoral college votes are counted on Jan. 6.