The White House on Monday condemned former President Trump’s remarks over the weekend calling for suspending the Constitution, and urged more Republicans to come forward to do the same.
“Every President and every member of Congress swears to ‘defend’ the Constitution of the United States,” said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates. “Asking Members of Congress to reaffirm their oath of office and uphold the Constitution should not be a heavy lift. Congressional Republicans need to do that immediately, instead of repeatedly refusing to answer the most basic question.”
Trump, who last month announced his run for reelection in 2024, posted on his social media site Truth Social on Saturday, “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” referring to false claims that the 2020 election that he lost to President Biden was rigged.
Trump’s Vice President Mike Pence, who is expected to challenge Trump for the 2024 GOP Presidential nomination, and Trump’s former National Security Adviser John Bolton are among the prominent Republicans who criticized Trump’s remarks on Monday, with Bolton saying he was prepared to consider running for President himself if more Republicans do not call out Trump’s comments.
Others, like Senators John Cornyn of Texas and John Thune of South Dakota, sharply rebuked the remarks but when pressed by reporters, they stopped short of saying Trump’s statement should disqualify him as a Presidential candidate.
On November 18, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed veteran career prosecutor Jack Smith as special counsel to determine whether criminal charges should be filed against Trump for his role in the deadly January 6, 2021 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol and the attempt to overturn the 2020 Presidential election, as well as his transporting of documents from the White House to his Florida country club residence, Mar-a-Lago.
