|
Dear friend,
A federal grand jury has just indicted Trump for his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.1 This is an essential step towards holding him accountable for inciting a deadly, white-supremacist-led insurrection on January 6, 2021 and attempting to overthrow the government to remain in power, but this is not over yet. Trump is still running for president in 2024, and being indicted for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election will not automatically kick him off the ballot. But the good news is that the 14th Amendment of the Constitution—ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War—states that no one who has previously held office in the U.S. and participates in an insurrection may ever hold public office again.2 So now it’s up to us to call on secretaries of state—the officials who oversee the administration of elections at the state level—to follow the law, keep Trump off the ballot, and send a clear, constitutionally-grounded message that insurrection has no place in our democracy. Trump refused to concede the 2020 election (still does).3 He pushed state officials to illegally change vote counts.4 He launched a plot to name fake electors.5 He tried to pressure his vice president into refusing to certify the results.6 And he incited a deadly, white supremacist-led insurrection.7 And he did this all while knowing that he had legitimately lost.8 He is already disqualified. Now our secretaries of state just need to finish the job, follow the Constitution, and refuse to put him on the ballot. As background, after the Civil War, our Constitution was amended to block Confederate enslavers from ever holding office again. That provision bars anyone from running for public office who, after taking an oath to uphold the Constitution, has engaged in insurrection against the United States.9 So Trump disqualified himself from running for office again when he incited an insurrection in a failed attempt to steal the 2020 election. And now that he has been indicted for trying to overturn the 2020 election, there is absolutely no question : Trump is already disqualified. But the truth is that we can’t trust that all secretaries of state will refuse to certify Trump, especially since the MAGA Republican party stopped at nothing to elect election-denying secretaries of state in the 2022 midterms.10 There will also be extraordinary pressure on secretaries of state to hold back—for fear that barring him will be viewed as partisan and unprecedented, or will lead to further acts of violence. It's essential that secretaries of state know that voters all across the country understand the Constitution, the lawful consequences of Trump's legal action, and why this measure is warranted. Trump continues to promote lies about the election even though evidence shows he knows he lost—he's doing this to rile up his base, incite further violence, undermine trust in our democracy, and enrich himself. Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends. Thanks for all you do.
MoveOn.
Sources :
1. "Trump indicted in special counsel's 2020 election interference probe", CNN, August 1, 2023 |
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire