Speaker | Time | Text |
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This was pretty puzzling to watch. | ||
Whatever else January 6th was, and in some ways we still don't know exactly what it was, it was not a Trump-led insurrection. | ||
The crowd had no guns. | ||
They had no plan to overthrow the government. | ||
Nothing like that has ever emerged. | ||
And above all, Trump was not leading it. | ||
He was miles away at the White House at the time, where he issued a public statement calling for calm and nonviolence. | ||
So why were the people on television telling us that Trump led an insurrection? | ||
This was, of course, a lie, but it was also a very obvious lie. | ||
So clearly we were watching the rollout of a talking point, words crafted for a specific purpose. | ||
But what was the purpose? | ||
We got an answer to that question yesterday when the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that because he led an insurrection, Donald Trump's name cannot appear on the state's ballot next fall. | ||
The four liberal judges who concluded this cited as their justification Article 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was written in 1868 to keep former Confederate officials from holding office. | ||
That was the sum total of their reasoning. | ||
Despite the fact Donald Trump has never been convicted by any court of insurrection, and although the 14th Amendment specifically does not apply to the presidency, Donald Trump cannot run for president because he's an insurrectionist. | ||
This seemed like lunacy, because it was lunacy. | ||
3,000 miles away in El Salvador, there was no question about what was happening. | ||
The United States has lost its ability to lecture any other country about, quote, democracy, wrote Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. | ||
And yet in this country, no one on the left dared say that. | ||
Instead, Donald Trump's enemies celebrated. | ||
The Atlantic magazine expressed gratitude that unelected judges had, quote, rescued the country from the desires of voters. | ||
Because actually, that's democracy. | ||
And then there was Jenna Griswold. | ||
That's the Colorado Secretary of State. | ||
You may not have seen her before, but you will instantly recognize the category she represents. | ||
Unhappy 39-year-old liberal women with Ivy League degrees and a deep streak of authoritarian impulses. | ||
Here's Griswold on MSNBC last night explaining that a conventional legal process is no longer necessary for the left to get its way. | ||
No more trials or evidence or jury verdicts. | ||
An accusation made on television is now enough to remove a frontrunner from the presidential race. | ||
If Nancy Pelosi and Joe Scarborough call you bad, Americans are not allowed to vote for you. | ||
Watch. | ||
unidentified
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Look, I believe he incited the insurrection. | |
There were big questions around Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, and the Colorado Supreme Court has weighed in in a very loud way, making themselves clear. | ||
Frankly, we've never had a president try to steal the presidency and engage in insurrection ever before. | ||
So Trump's actions are unprecedented. | ||
The Colorado Supreme Court confirmed that the district court got it right, that he did engage in insurrection. | ||
I think Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has to apply to the presidency, because if not, it's a get-out-of-jail-free card. | ||
And in a country of laws where no man is above another, we can't have one office be able to do whatever they want when it comes to rebellion and then be able to be seated in office again. | ||
None of this seems very American. |