Some are continuing to push for restrictions on Donald Trump running for president again at all considering his role in what happened on and around January 6, 2021.
That day, it wasn’t just the violent attack on the Capitol that threatened democracy, although such was obviously a large part of it. In Congress, allies to the then-president voted in perhaps startlingly large numbers to unilaterally reject electoral college votes that it had been duly documented were rightfully in Joe Biden’s column. There was no real-world evidence of the kind of misconduct many claimed and some still claim, and no court ever accepted the notion that Biden’s win was the result of misconduct, but leading members of the party in Congress still supported that initiative anyway.
Some did so on the basis of other boldfaced deception, like the idea promoted by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that there was some kind of gap to fill in the investigations that had been conducted after the presidential race concluded, as though many authorities on the local, state, and federal levels (see Bill Barr and Chris Krebs) hadn’t already done their due diligence.
Robert Reich, who served as Labor Secretary when Bill Clinton was in office as president, argued in favor of restricting Trump from running in a new article for The Guardian, where he cited restrictions found in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on those who’ve held office but involved themselves in insurrection running again. Reich argued it was reasonably likely to suspect the possibility of Trump trying again to do the same sort of thing he pursued after the 2020 contest, and what if he assembles more loyalists in relevant positions of power this time around?
“Can any of us who saw (or have learned through the painstaking work of the January 6 committee) what Trump tried to do to overturn the results of the 2020 election have any doubt he will once again try to do whatever necessary to regain power, even if illegal and unconstitutional?” Reich wrote, before discussing some of the reforms that have been imposed since 2020, like raising the numbers of Representatives and Senators who must agree to an objection to electoral college votes before that dispute heads to a Congressional vote.
“But what if Trump gets secretaries of state and governors who are loyal to him to alter the election machinery to ensure he wins?” Reich continued. “What if he gets them to prevent people likely to vote for Joe Biden from voting at all? What if he gets them to appoint electors who will vote for him regardless of the outcome of the popular vote?.. Does anyone doubt the possibility – no, the probability – of any or all of this happening?” Reich accused Trump of what the former official called treason. Read more at this link.
