Donald Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung blasted the premise that Congress could block the incoming president from assuming power — calling it a “threat to Democracy” on Thursday.
The Hill published an op-ed with the headline, “Congress has the power to block Trump from taking office, but lawmakers must act now,” pushing that those who engaged in an insurrection against the Constitution should be banned from assuming power.
“Oh, look. Democrats want to steal the election and invalidate the will of the American people,” Cheung wrote on X in response to the op-ed.
“Threat to Democracy.”
“Here are two idiots inciting an insurrection …Remember the names: Congress has the power to block Trump from taking office, but lawmakers must act now,” Chris LaCivita, a former 2024 campaign Trump adviser, also wrote.
“You people are sick,” Trump’s middle son, Eric, chimed in.
“Such a crazy thing for them to say. Legacy media is just the propaganda arm of the radical left,” Trump ally Elon Musk wrote in response to the scion’s tweet.
The Hill article notes that the 14th Amendment in the Constitution states, “No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
The article argues there are three points that prove Trump participated in an insurrection: Congress impeaching him after his actions on Jan. 6, the Colorado Supreme Court finding that he “engaged in insurrection” and the conclusions of the bipartisan inquiry into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming,” argues the op-ed, written by Evan A. Davis and David M. Schulte, two Democrat lawyers.
No members of Congress have been making noise about the amendment in recent weeks, but Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) had previously pointed to the same argument about why Trump should be disqualified.
“Well, absolutely, and we’ve been saying all along that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment presents a clear and unequivocal statement that anyone who has sworn an oath of office,” Raskin told CNN’s Dana Bash in 2023.
“And by the way, not just the president but members of Congress and others who hold federal office, who engage in insurrection or rebellion, having sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic, can never serve again in federal or state office.”
