California Democrats Could Guarantee Trump 2024 Win

Authored by John Seiler via The Epoch Times,

This is so humorous. California Democrats are hatching a plot to maintain former President Donald Trump off the state’s poll subsequent yr.

But it might backfire and assure he wins.

Politico headlined, “California Dems consider unique approach to getting Trump off ballot: California lawmakers are urging AG Bonta to expedite court action against former president.”

The story:

“Nine California lawmakers wrote a letter to Attorney General Rob Bonta over the weekend, arguing that Trump isn’t eligible to be on the ballot for inciting an insurrection when a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“The move, which comes amid several lawsuits to keep Trump off state ballots across the country, is unique because Bonta could use his standing as California’s top law enforcement officer to expedite a state court ruling on the matter. Should the effort succeed, California could be the first state to bump Trump off its ballot, even if the ruling is ultimately overturned.”

This is being debated across the nation primarily based on the 14th Amendment’s Section 3, which reads (please excuse a few medium-length quotes for context):

“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.”

Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021 supposedly made him the chief of an “insurrection.”

The greatest argument in opposition to that was superior by former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey within the Wall Street Journal:

“The use of the term ‘officer of the United States’ in other constitutional provisions shows that it refers only to appointed officials, not to elected ones. In U.S. v. Mouat (1888), the Supreme Court ruled that ‘unless a person in the service of the government … holds his place by virtue of an appointment … he is not, strictly speaking, an officer of the United States.’ Chief Justice John Roberts reiterated the point in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (2010): ‘The people do not vote for the “Officers of the United States.”’”

The California State Capitol constructing in Sacramento, Calif., on April 18, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

What if They Can Disqualify Trump?

Now, right here’s the place it will get fascinating.

Hypothetically, what if Mr. Mukasey’s argument doesn’t maintain up within the courts?

Then California and different states’ attorneys basic and governors, or lawsuits by political teams, might throw Mr. Trump off the poll.

Especially crucial can be the swing states with Democratic governors: Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper. Or Fulton County (Atlanta) District Attorney Fani Willis, already prosecuting Trump for allegedly interfering within the 2020 election, might do it.

But then, Republicans might do it of their swing states, throwing President Joe Biden off the poll.

They might say his alleged bribes from Communist China disqualify him below the 14th modification’s Section 3 wording for having “given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

Republicans governors invoking that clause might embrace Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Joe Lombardo of Nevada, and Chris Sununu of New Hampshire.

It can be what in army parlance is known as Mutual Assured Destruction.

If that occurred, neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Biden would attain the 270 electoral votes wanted to win the presidency within the Electoral College.

Then what?

This mixture of images created on October 22, 2020 exhibits President Donald Trump, left, and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden throughout the closing presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 22, 2020. (Brendan Smialowski and Jim Watson/AFP by way of Getty Images)

Contingent Elections

Then we’d have the fourth of what’s known as a Contingent Election, though the phrase itself isn’t within the Constitution.

It means the matter is determined by the House of Representatives (or the Senate for vice presidents).

There have been three up to now:

1. Thomas Jefferson beat Aaron Burr in 1800;

2. John Quincy Adams beat Andrew Jackson in 1825.

3. And in 1837 the vice presidential election was given to Richard Mentor Johnson over Francis Granger.

Under a Contingent Election within the House, all 435 members don’t get to vote. Rather, every state delegation will get one vote—50 votes whole.

On Sept. 18 Canadian political author Stephen Marche wrote an article for the left-wing Guardian titled, “Here’s the scary way Trump could win without the electoral or popular vote: In a ‘contingent election,’ he could lose the popular vote, electoral college and all his legal cases and still end up the legal US president.”

He calculated:

“State delegations in the House would favor Republicans as a matter of course. In the struggle for congressional delegates, Republicans would have 19 safe House delegations and the Democrats would have 14, as it stands, with more states leaning Republican than Democrat.”

Ha ha.

So California, by knocking Mr. Trump off the poll, might assure he turns into president.

Again, none of that is prone to occur.

If any state tries to maintain him off the poll, the courts virtually definitely would put him again on, presumably reasoning alongside the strains Mr. Mukasey detailed.

There’s one factor this entire escapade teaches us: A lot of California’s politicians maintain in contempt the Constitution, democracy, and the individuals of the state they declare to characterize.

In this train-wreck of a state, with housing, homelessness, drug dependancy, education, finances, and numerous different issues festering—don’t they’ve something higher to do?