House Democrats on Thursday introduced legislation that would bar former President Donald Trump from holding any federal office in the future, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
The legislation is spearheaded by Democratic Rep. David Cicilline, of Rhode Island, who was a House manager for Trump's second impeachment, and the bill also has 40 co-sponsors, all Democrats. It cites the provision in the 14th Amendment that says no one who has held government office and who "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" shall be able to hold federal office again.
"Donald Trump very clearly engaged in an insurrection on January 6, 2021 with the intention of overturning the lawful and fair results of the 2020 election," Cicilline argued in a statement. "You don't get to lead a government you tried to destroy. Even Mitch McConnell admits that Trump bears responsibility, saying on the Senate floor that '[t]here's no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.'"
"The 14th Amendment makes clear that based on his past behavior, Donald Trump is disqualified from ever holding federal office again and, under Section 5, Congress has the power to pass legislation to implement this prohibition," Cicilline continued.
The legislation goes into detail about how Trump pushed then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the election results, failed to do anything to denounce the mob assaulting the Capitol for hours, and intervened with government officials who didn't support his false claims of mass election fraud, among other things.
The bill would need to pass both chambers of Congress, with only days before Republicans take control of the House and a substantial end-of-year agenda remaining. The legislation drops as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol prepares to release its final report next week. That committee is only authorized to operate until the end of the year.
