A former deputy independent counsel for the Whitewater-Lewinsky investigation of Bill Clinton dismissed some Democrats' claims former President Donald Trump can be disqualified from elective office amid his indictments due to the "insurrection" clause in the 14th Amendment.
The amendment, ratified in 1868 which mainly gave all "born or naturalized persons" the right to vote following the Civil War, also has a section prohibiting anyone who previously took a Constitutional oath and has "engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof" from attaining elected office again.
On "The Ingraham Angle" Monday, host Laura Ingraham reported on several Democrats and pundits who suggested Trump disqualified himself from further holding office in the wake of the January 6 Capitol Riot.
One prominent Democrat, House Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin of Maryland, told CNN that Amendment 14 Section III presents a "clear and unequivocal statement" on Trump's "disqualif[ication]."
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Sol Wisenberg, the former prosector in the Clinton scandals, said the federal courts ruled as far back as 1869 that the insurrection clause is not "self-executing" – meaning it would take congressional action to enforce against Trump.
He cited Supreme Court Justice Salmon Chase's declaration of that year, adding that Congress later passed a law mirroring the amendment's language, which suggests Trump would need to be charged with violating it to even begin any disqualification process.
"The punishment, in addition to the criminal fine is that you cannot ever hold office again. So it's been done," he said.
"The idea that you would have some state official, a partisanly-elected state official, disqualify Trump without any kind of due process at all, I think is not going to fly," Wisenberg said, as Trump faces stiff charges from a pair of local prosecutors – Fani Willis in Atlanta and Alvin Bragg in New York City.
"Listen, I think one of them is going to do it. And when they do, I think it will move up rapidly through the courts."
Wisenberg said, however, if Trump is ultimately charged with violating the 14th Amendment's duplicative law, the Supreme Court would likely intercede in his favor.
Ingraham added that, in Atlanta, while Willis has charged Trump under the mob-like RICO conspiracy statute, there was no appearance of allegations expressing Trump had the intent to overthrow the government as part of that purported conspiracy.
"So this whole theory rests on, I think, a fallacious understanding of even what the basic facts are in this case," she said.
In terms of Trump's court dates, historian Victor Davis Hanson commented on the fact District of Columbia federal Judge Tanya Chutkan scheduled the former president's January 6-related trial to begin March 4, 2024 – the day before Super Tuesday.
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Willis had originally floated that day as well for the commencement of her case against the president in Atlanta.
Hanson responded to a remark by Ingraham that Chutkan's move shows that "by any means necessary, they want him out" of presidential contention.
He said the "subtext" to that assertion is that the left believes they cannot run on the Biden agenda, and that the elderly president is "one trip away from oblivion."
"Third, to use that left's phrase, the walls are closing in. And it's not just [Devon] Archer and [Tony] Bobulinski or the IRS whistleblowers. It's Viktor Shokin. It's some oligarchs that say they have tapes. There's the Hunter laptop. It's being reexamined for where he admits he gave half his income to Joe. And so they don't want to talk about any of those three things," Hanson said.
"So it's Trump all the time."
Hanson said the mounting litigation against Trump, which includes nearly 100 criminal counts, is a frantic expression of paranoia that they – the Democrats – don't have a winning, positive message or a "vibrant candidate."
"And so, it's to fixate on Donald Trump or whoever would get the nomination," he said. "I've never seen anything like this before."
Ingraham argued Biden will not actively campaign, as Trump grabs negative headlines with his litigation.
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