Former aide in the Trump White House Cassidy Hutchinson agrees with those arguing that former President Donald Trump has effectively disqualified himself from holding the office again. He’s currently, of course, trying to secure another four years as president, consistently leading every announced challenger in the GOP presidential primary before next year’s general election.
Hutchinson made these comments in a discussion with CNN. “The counts that Donald Trump is currently facing – he is facing counts of obstructing the Constitution – to me that is disqualifying. Donald Trump should be disqualified from being the president of the United States – to me that’s not a question,” she said. Hutchinson is well known for high-profile testimony that she provided the January 6 committee in the House, which ended with the close of the prior Congress. Among her revelations was that Trump evidently knew the crowds supporting him in D.C. on January 6, 2021, were armed — which did not stop his repeated expressions of support, even after mobs attacked the Capitol.
It bears repeating that Trump started providing attempted explanations and excuses for the violence within mere hours of its emergence, writing on Twitter (now X) in emphatic language that the violence merely constituted the “things and events that happen” when an election is stolen — which, of course, it wasn’t.
There remain several active lawsuits that challenge Trump’s basic eligibility for office on grounds similar to those Hutchinson raised. In Colorado, Minnesota, and Michigan, advocacy groups and local individuals are pointing in these lawsuits to the provisions of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment that bar candidates from office if they previously took an oath to uphold the nation’s guiding document and then engaged in insurrection. The outcomes to those cases remain to be seen, though arguments are coming up fast. The top state officials in charge of their respective jurisdictions’ elections have in multiple locales expressed openness to blocking Trump while consistently deferring to the eventual decisions in court.
