WASHINGTON - Former President Donald Trump faced rebuke Sunday from both parties after calling for the termination of parts of the Constitution over his lie that the 2020 election was stolen.
Trump, who announced last month that he is running again for the presidency, made a statement over the weekend on his Truth Social media platform.
A massive fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution, he wrote. Our great Founders did not want, and would not condone False Fraudulent Elections! On Sunday, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries described Trump's statement as strange and extreme and said Republicans would have to make a choice between Trump's anti-democratic views.
The Republicans will have to work out their issues with the former president and decide whether they will break from him and return to some sort of reasonableness or continue to lean into extremism, not just Trump, but Trumpism, Jeffries said.
Trump, who is the first to be impeached twice and whose term ended with his supporters violently storming the Capitol in a bid to halt the peaceful transition of power on January 6, 2021, faces escalating criminal investigations, including several that could lead to indictments. The probe into classified documents seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago, and ongoing state and federal inquiries related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election are some of the things they include.
Asked about Trump's comments Sunday, Ohio Rep. Mike Turner, the top Republican in the House Intelligence Committee, said he vehemently disagrees with the remarks and that they should be a factor as Republicans decide who should lead their party in 2024.
The political process has to go forward before anyone is a frontrunner or even a candidate for the party, he said. I think people are going to take into account a statement like this when they evaluate a candidate. The Constitution was set for a reason to protect the rights of every American, and the Representative-elect Mike Lawler said it was time to stop focusing on the grievances of previous elections. If he is going to run for president again, I think he would be wise to focus on the future. Trump sounded after Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, said he would reveal how Twitter engaged in free speech suppression leading up to the 2020 election. The files released on Friday focus on the tech company's confused response to a story about Biden's son Hunter, but they don't show Democrats trying to limit the story.
Trump said on Saturday that he cannot only love America when he wins. Andrew Bates said in a statement that the American Constitution is a sacrosanct document that has guaranteed freedom and the rule of law in our great country for over 200 years. The Constitution and all it stands for is anathema to the soul of our nation. Jeffries appeared on ABC's This Week, Turner spoke on CBS' Face the Nation and Lawler was on CNN's State of the Union.