Report: Democrats Seeking To Use 14th Amendment To Bar Trump From Office

A new report indicates congressional Democrats are seeking to invoke an obscure section of the 14th Amendment to bar Donald Trump from ever holding office again.

An analysis by The Hill demonstrates that roughly a dozen Democrat lawmakers have openly or privately speculated about invoking the section to ban Trump from running for elected office.

In other words, they want to stop Trump 2024 before it even happens.

The Hill report specifically names three House Democrats – Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Jerry Nadler (D-NY), and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) – as having discussed the possibility with leftist Harvard lawyer Laurence Tribe. 

“I hear it being raised with considerable frequency these days both by media commentators and by members of Congress and their staffs, some of whom have sought my advice on how to implement Section 3,” Tribe told the outlet.

An analysis by The Hill found that around a dozen Democratic lawmakers have spoken either publicly or privately over the last year about how Section 3 of the 14th Amendment might apply to those who engaged in insurrection on Jan. 6. https://t.co/c5IRjWJOtB

— The Hill (@thehill) January 6, 2022

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Barring Trump From Office

The Political Insider reported back in February that Congressional Democrats were considering utilizing the 14th Amendment to bar Trump from office.

The idea first surfaced as a result of Democrats fearing their second impeachment of the former President would not lead to conviction.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is a rarely cited Civil War-era provision that bars people from holding office if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or “given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

From there, it’s easy to tie what Democrats are attempting to do with the January 6 Committee and their insistence that the Capitol riot was an “insurrection” plotted by Trump.

1. Have the media continually refer to the Capitol riot as an “insurrection” even as nobody has been charged with such a crime.
2. Conduct an investigation through the select committee to link Trump in some small manner to said “insurrection.”
3. Invoke a little-known provision involving Civil War terminology for an “insurrection.”

Using the 14th Amendment is too clever by half. Our raging politics is blinding many to what could be a dangerous precedent of barring political opponents from office. With calls for blacklists against those “complicit” with Trump, such a power would be ripe for abuse.

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) January 30, 2021

RELATED: Democrats Have A Back-Up Plan That Might Still Bar Trump From Running Again If Impeachment Fails

Democrats Abusing Power

Jamie Raskin pursuing an effort to ban Donald Trump using the 14th Amendment through a legally weak argument of inciting an insurrection is rich.

Raskin objected to the certification of Florida’s electoral votes in 2017. In fact, House Democrats tried objecting to the certification of electoral votes for Donald Trump that year 11 times.

It’s only an “attack on Democracy” if the other guy does it.

Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin objected to Florida’s electoral votes in 2017. pic.twitter.com/FsLvJLvA8v

— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) January 13, 2021

Such arguments against the legitimacy of the 2016 election led to marches, sometimes violent, in Washington, D.C. that year.

You can watch the resulting violence below …

The extremists who attacked the US capital in January 2017 to stop inauguration of Trump carried large banners of #Antifa before destroying property & starting fires. The violence was cheered on by the left & police were condemned for making arrests. pic.twitter.com/51b8WFlpvr

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) January 6, 2022

Raskin discussed using the 14th Amendment shortly after Trump was acquitted by the Senate.

“The point is that the constitutional purpose is clear, to keep people exactly like Donald Trump and other traitors to the union from holding public office,” he said.

Some legal scholars have claimed Democrats could get the ball rolling on this plan by voting on a censure resolution to declare Trump engaged in “insurrection.”

Bitter and obsessed Democrats could conceivably coalesce behind such a censure resolution and they wouldn’t need any help from the Republicans.

A resolution to censure Trump would require a simple majority vote to pass in the House and Senate.

The Hill though, reports that some legal experts such as Tribe believe they have to go further by “by establishing a neutral fact-finding body to determine whether Trump engaged in insurrection under Section 3, or assigning that fact-finding role to a federal court.”

Again, part of the carefully calculated political game.

Democrats rejected pro-Trump Republicans from being included on the select committee investigating the Capitol riot. Instead, they placed committed ‘Never Trump’ Republicans Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) on the panel.

They then promoted Cheney to co-chair in an attempt to portray the group as a ‘neutral fact-finding body.’

Trump has repeatedly hinted about another run in 2024, but has yet to officially declare.