Trump’s online posts on Saturday — including a message in which he wrote: “Unprecedented fraud demands unprecedented treatment!” — represent a marked escalation in his attacks on American institutions and democratic norms, which academics say must be heeded , as a sign of how far he was willing to go to regain power.
“Massive Fraud of this type and scale allows for the termination of all Rules, Regulations and Articles, even those in the Constitution,” Trump said in a post on the Truth Social platform. “Our great ‘Founding Fathers’ did not want to and would not tolerate a sham and rigged election!”
But only a handful of Republican lawmakers joined the White House and Democrats in denouncing Trump’s claims. Representatives for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky. ) did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday.
last month, McCarthy announced When Republicans take control of the House in January, Republicans will read every word of the Constitution aloud from the floor of the House.
Some Republican lawmakers who were asked about Trump’s latest letter on Sunday’s Politics show said they disagreed with the former president. However, most of them are still hesitant to vote against Trump if he becomes the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nominee.
When asked about Trump’s comments on ABC’s “This Week,” Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), chairman of the Republican Governance Group, avoided a direct answer, saying he “hasn’t developed a culture in his tweets.” The text has a habit of shouting “when Trump is in office. When pressed by moderator George Stephanopoulos, Joyce said he would “support whoever the Republican candidate is” — but didn’t think Trump “could do it.”
“Well, first of all, he didn’t — he didn’t have the ability to suspend the Constitution,” Joyce said. “You know, he said a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.”
Laurence H. Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School, said there has been a legitimate academic debate among constitutional scholars about whether the flaws in the country’s founding documents were so severe that a new one was called for. The point of the constitutional convention.
Tribe, however, said in an interview that what Trump is doing is “not debate, it’s destruction.” “What he did was scream openly in desperation that anything standing in the way of his being the all-powerful should be swept away.”
Trump announced his presidential re-election campaign last month after some Trump-backed candidates lost key races in the midterms, raising questions within the Republican Party about how to handle relations with the former president become more complicated.
While the Tribe acknowledges that Trump has said many outrageous things that should not always be noted, he believes this latest statement should not be ignored, especially as Trump’s unfounded claims about the 2020 election lead to supporters of the Trump administration. Trump’s mob on January 6, 2021, tried to block the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
“It’s a statement like no other. It’s kind of like saying the quiet part out loud — he doesn’t respect the country, he doesn’t respect anything other than himself,” Tribe said. “It’s like saying, ‘Do you want to see a riot? I’ll show you a rebellion. I’m going to tear the whole thing up.'”
On Sunday, Trump’s defenders moved to quell the controversy. A Republican operative close to the former president, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversation, argued that the post did not actually advocate or call for the repeal of the Constitution.
Asked why Trump didn’t at least advocate for the repeal of the Constitution, the agent said: “He’s comparing the unprecedented nature of tech giants’ meddling in the 2020 election to benefit Joe Biden to the unprecedented termination of the Constitution.” behavior,” suggesting, without evidence, that tech platforms have turned the tables for Biden in 2020.
Trump’s post on Saturday came a day after Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, claimed he would reveal how Twitter was involved in “free speech suppression” in the run-up to the 2020 election. But his “Twitter profile” doesn’t suggest the tech giant is bowing to the Democratic Party’s wishes.
Some Republican members condemned Trump’s remarks more strongly. On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Congressman. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) said he “absolutely” condemned Trump’s comments, but stressed that there is a long political process ahead before Trump is considered a frontrunner in 2024.
“I strongly disagree with Trump’s statement. You know, Trump has made a thousand statements that I disagree with,” Turner said. He added that voters “certainly consider statements like this when evaluating candidates.”
Trump’s comments drew sharp rebuke from the White House and several Democrats, as well as Republicans who have fallen out of favor in their party for their longtime Trump critics.Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) calls Trump enemies of the constitutionand Adam Kinsinger (R-Ill.) questioned how their fellow Republicans could continue to support him.
“With the former president calling for the repeal of the Constitution, no conservative can legally support him, and no supporter can be called a conservative,” Kinzinger said. tweet on sunday, while tagging McCarthy’s Twitter handle as well as Reps in his messages. Elise Stefanik (RN.Y.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). “Crazy. Trump hates the Constitution.”
Congressman-elect Mike Lawler (RN.Y.) echoed several other Republicans in his response to Trump, saying now is usually a time to look forward rather than reinvent the wheel of the 2020 election. litigation.
“The Constitution was created for a reason to protect the rights of every American. So of course I disagree [Trump’s] Language or that emotion,” Lawler said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I think if a former president is going to run for president again, he’d better look to the future. “
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who will become the Democratic minority leader in January, dismissed Trump’s comments as another “remarkable” statement from the former president and ultimately an identity crisis for the GOP.
“I think it’s an odd statement, but Republicans are going to have to sort out their issues with the former president and decide whether they want to break with him and restore some semblance of rationality, or continue leaning towards extremism, Not just Trump, but Trumpism,” Jeffries said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Several senior Republicans, including former Vice President Mike Pence, recently issued a rare rebuke of Trump after he dined with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and rapper Yeh , both of whom have a history of anti-Semitic remarks.
On Sunday, Israel’s prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu said he believed Trump “probably understood” that the dinner had crossed the line, but was reluctant to blame Trump or his rhetoric for rising anti-Semitism.he instead Blame social media for amplifying the divide.
“There are many, many blessings in the Internet age, but there are also curses. The curse is polarization,” Netanyahu said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Anti-Semitism, he said, is “the oldest hatred, as I said, one of the oldest human hatreds. Wrong then, wrong now. But in the age of the Internet, it may have gained additional s life.”
Isaac Arnsdorf, Karoun Demirjian, Toluse Olorunnipa and Missy Ryan contributed to this report.