Trump officially did what we all dreaded, but knew was coming, when he held a massive speech at his scandal-ridden Mar-a-Lago resort turned post-White House home in Palm Beach, FL, formally announcing his campaign and candidacy for the 2024 office of the United States presidency.
The announcement came not only on the heels of a catastrophic midterm election failure for the Republican Party but also amid rapidly and ever-mounting scandal and legal peril for the former president himself — ranging from the New York Attorney General’s lawsuit to the Manhattan District Attorney’s criminal investigation into his company to the Georgia Special Grand Jury investigation into his alleged election crimes in the state to the Justice Department’s stolen document investigation to the ongoing House Select Committee investigation into the January 6th Capitol insurrection that Donald Trump personally played a role in inciting.
Suffice it to say, the man is quite literally the furthest thing from fit for office, in any conceivable way. At this point, there’s a very real possibility that he’ll be campaigning from a jail cell before it’s all said and done.
But if one congressman has his way, Trump won’t be campaigning at all. In fact, Trump won’t ever campaign again in his life.
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Rhode Island Democratic House Rep. David Cicilline personally served as the impeachment manager on Donald Trump’s second impeachment in the House of Representatives — the one where he was impeached for personally inciting the deadly violence that took place at the Capitol building on January 6th, 2021, as the then-outgoing president’s supporters attempted to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College win, all in the name of Donald Trump.
Now, Cicilline is working to band together his fellow congresspeople in support of a piece of legislation that will effectively set the wheels in motion to bar Donald J. Trump from EVER holding office in the United States of America again.
Cicilline cites the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause in his legislation and is now making contact with his fellow House representatives to garner their support for the bill that has gathered evidence and testimonies proving that Donald Trump “engaged in insurrection” — standing in direct violation of the United States Constitution.
Cicilline’s letter, sent to his fellow congresspeople seemingly before Trump’s big campaign announcement, reads:
Given the proof — demonstrated through the January 6th Committee Hearings, the 2021 impeachment trial, and other reporting — that Donald Trump engaged in insurrection on January 6th with the intention of overturning the lawful 2020 election results, I have drafted legislation that would prevent Donald Trump from holding public office again under the Fourteenth Amendment.”
The former impeachment manager’s call to action goes on to add that his proposed legislation “details testimony and evidence demonstrating how Donald Trump engaged in insurrection against the United States.”
CNN’s Manu Raju published a copy of the letter to Twitter:
As Trump announces bid, Dem Rep. David Cicilline is circulating legislation to bar Donald Trump from holding office, citing the 14th Amendment that bans individuals from holding office who have engaged in an insurrection. Letter sent to colleagues: pic.twitter.com/vQDiE0enUB
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 16, 2022
This is not the first time that the 14th Amendment has been invoked with regard to US office holders who engaged in the events leading up to, surrounding, and during the January 6th Capitol attack. The Amendment has been used against Georgia Republican House Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, North Carolina House Rep. Madison Cawthorn, and County Commissioner Couy Griffin of Otero County, New Mexico. Only the case against Griffin has been successful.
We can only hope that Donald Trump serves as the second successful case.
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
