Speaker Mike Johnson Throws Cold Water on House Democrats' Plan to Remove Trump from Ballot: 'Get a Grip'
Democrats have used the Capitol incursion on Jan. 6, 2021, as a cudgel against former President Donald Trump for more than three years, mainly because it’s all they have.
With the polls showing President Joe Biden underwater in almost every statistic, the Democratic Party would have nothing to run on if it lost the ability to question the legitimacy of Trump — the Republican front-runner in this year’s presidential race — being on the ballot.
Even after the unanimous Supreme Court ruling on Monday proved that the horse is well and truly dead, Democrats cannot seem to give up the notion that they can somehow resurrect their imaginary Pegasus so that it can carry them to victory in November.
That ruling came after Colorado’s Supreme Court had decided that Trump could be kept off the state’s ballot because he violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution by inciting an “insurrection” on Jan. 6.
The U.S. justices concluded that while states can enforce the “disqualification clause” against insurrectionists for state offices, only Congress has the power to do so for federal officeholders and candidates.
Not surprisingly, shortly after the 9-0 Supreme Court ruling, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a former member of the House Jan. 6 committee, told Axios that he planned to revise a bill he introduced last year with Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz that could keep Trump off the ballot.
The proposed bill would officially declare the Jan. 6 incursion of the Capitol an “insurrection,” suggesting participants “engaged in insurrection” and therefore could be disqualified from holding federal office under the 14th Amendment.
“I’m working on it — today,” Raskin told Axios.
It’s the only song they know and sing with delight knowing they’re the only ones left to even hear themselves.
— Joshua J Rodriguez (@RatedRAmerican) March 4, 2024
But House Speaker Mike Johnson is putting an end to that fantasy once and for all.
A representative of the Louisiana Republican told Fox News on Monday night that Johnson told his Democratic colleagues to “get a grip.”
“In this country, the American people decide the next president — not the courts and not the Congress,” the speaker’s representative added.
The chances of getting this passed into law are practically zero, especially as Republicans hold the majority in the House.
Raskin himself admitted it to Axios, saying, “I don’t have a lot of hope that Speaker Johnson will allow us to bring enforcement legislation to the floor, but we have to try and do it.”
When at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try…
— James Connor (@JamesCo12480436) March 5, 2024
Sixty-five percent of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll published on Saturday.
If they stop talking about Jan. 6, Democrats will have to start facing and taking accountability for their own disastrous policies, and that’s not something they want to do.
It’s a lot easier to keep tilting at windmills.
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