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[–] 270 points 3 years ago (25 children)

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

To be fair, "support" isn't the exact word used, but "preserve, protect, and defend" is pretty unequivocal

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  • [+] 74 points 3 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (6 children)
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    [–] 154 points 3 years ago* (22 children)

    The text of the section they are challenging (emphasis added):

    No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

    It's an exceptionally stupid argument, even for Trump. Obviously "preserve, protect, and defend" are all forms of support, so this challenge is quite possibly the stupidest legal argument they've made so far (which is an extremely high bar). But I suppose they don't think they can realistically claim that he didnt engage in insurrection.

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  • [–] 58 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    Hold up, if that's the crux of his argument, does that mean that his argument is

    "I can't be barred from running because I never took an oath to support the constitution. Therefore my inciting insurrection is not covered by this clause. But I totally incited rebellion."?

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  • [–] 41 points 3 years ago

    "I crossed my fingers when I took the oath of office so it didn't count. Also, I'm rubber and you're glue. Whatever 14th Amendment you throw bounces off of me and sticks to you!"

    -Trump's next legal arguments..

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  • [–] 25 points 3 years ago (11 children)

    Wow that's stupid. I'm sure this comes up all the time with wording of other laws and I'm sure judges are used to eviscerating it. Now as long as we don't get stupid judges...

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    [–] 138 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (9 children)

    There is a record of the Senate debate on this amendment.

    One questioned 'Why doesn't this include the president?'.

    Another senator replied 'It does under the section of anyone who holds an office'.

    The response was 'Ok, I was unclear on that'. And the debate carried on.

    So the writers obviously intended this to include the office of the president.

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  • [–] 97 points 3 years ago (13 children)

    I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

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  • [–] 51 points 3 years ago (7 children)

    The argument is that the word "support" isn't explicitly there. Therefore, the President is not an officer of the government, and therefore Trump isn't barred from being President under the 14th Amendment.

    This argument is dumb, of course. Scalia once made a similar one, noting that punishments must be cruel and unusual to be constitutionally banned. Cruel or unusual on their own is fine.

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  • [–] 35 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)

    Wait, that’s their actual argument? For real?

    … 😂

    Mood image.

    Why stop at that word? Why not complain that every synonym for every word isn’t included? Just turn the whole thing into a thesaurus? (eta: like, the insurrection act doesn’t apply because you’re calling it a coup! Totally different word! I said I killed that guy, but the statute says ‘murder’ not ‘kill’. Checkmate atheists!)

    Every time I think they’ve hit maximum daft, they climb back in the hole and dig up some more. Amazing.

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    [–] 85 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    “Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”

    ― Jean-Paul Sartre

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    [–] 72 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    I hope he has more success arguing semantics with the prison gang leaders.

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  • [–] 71 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    I hope his prison wardens give him pants that don't support adult diapers.

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    [–] 65 points 3 years ago

    Given the oath an elected official needs to swear, you'd think this would invalidate him for even trying to get elected.

    But we know the normal rules don't seem to matter any more.

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  • [–] 61 points 3 years ago (10 children)

    If only he had murdered a bunch of small children instead then Republicans might have cared about the Constitution part.

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    [–] 59 points 3 years ago

    His only duty is to Putin, and himself.

    In that order.

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  • [–] 50 points 3 years ago* (6 children)

    I’m sorry, fucking what now?

    That’s the nation’s constitutionalists’ preferred candidate, everyone, nothing wrong here.

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    [–] 47 points 3 years ago (1 child)
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    [–] 43 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    So I guess that's basically an admission that he violated his oath.

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  • [–] 21 points 3 years ago* (2 children)

    Legally, it's a fine distinction. What his attorneys are arguing appears to be that, even if he did commit insurrection, the law in question doesn't apply to the office of the president and, thus, not to Trump. On the surface, the logic is sound: Law applies if conditions are met; conditions were not met, therefore law does not apply.

    The problem for Trump is that the law does apply,^1 so he should face the consequences.

    If I had access to Westlaw or LexisNexis, I'd be interested to look into the caselaw. My concern is that the argument for specific word choice (i.e. "support" was specifically used instead of "preserve, protect, defend") isn't without some merit. I'm just glad he can never seem to hire competent attorneys. I'm hoping for a long, long, lonely life behind bars for his retirement years. (Though I know this isn't one of his criminal cases.)

    1- Assuming, of course, there remains any justice left in the US system. Unfortunately not a small assumption these days.

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    [–] 38 points 3 years ago
    [–] 31 points 3 years ago

    He's right, cuz he had his fingers crossed while he was being sworn in. 🤞

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  • [+] 30 points 3 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)
  • [–] 27 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Not just without his makeup... Also without his hair piece, Adderall, weird combover, weird oversized suit to hide his diapers, ridiculous long tie, girdle, Adderall, spanx, shoes with high heels and lifts inside, Adderall, teleprompter, ozempic, carefully prescribed camera angles to not show his gut/baldspot/chin vulva, Adderall, doctor to lie about his weight/health and his regular mcfishy deluxe diet.

    And he also won't have anymore Adderall.

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    [–] 20 points 3 years ago*

    Trump screeching the quiet part out loud

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  • [–] 19 points 3 years ago

    Wow, what a patriot!

    /s just in case

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  • [+] 18 points 3 years ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (5 children)
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    [–] 17 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    And 50% of Americans approve! Bravo!

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  • [–] 37 points 3 years ago*

    It's around 32-34% of registered voters. We have a real voter suppression issue here in the states that has been caused, and exacerbated by one of the only two parties we are allowed to have, unless about 80% of the voters decide to change the system.

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    [–] 17 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    This is like cops saying they no obligation to serve and protect.

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