Last Call For Fantasma Santos

New York Republican George Santos, who won NY-3's House seat on Long Island in November, seems like on the surface the kind of Republican who could have a long career as the "reasonable" Red State warrior in Blue New York, young, openly gay, and charismatic, the well-educated scion of a Long Island real estate empire and the son of Brazilian immigrants.  

The problem is of course that like many Republicans, he's an inveterate liar.

 

George Santos, whose election to Congress on Long Island last month helped Republicans clinch a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, built his candidacy on the notion that he was the “full embodiment of the American dream” and was running to safeguard it for others.

His campaign biography amplified his storybook journey: He is the son of Brazilian immigrants, and the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat as a non-incumbent. By his account, he catapulted himself from a New York City public college to become a “seasoned Wall Street financier and investor” with a family-owned real estate portfolio of 13 properties and an animal rescue charity that saved more than 2,500 dogs and cats.

But a New York Times review of public documents and court filings from the United States and Brazil, as well as various attempts to verify claims that Mr. Santos, 34, made on the campaign trail, calls into question key parts of the résumé that he sold to voters.

Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, the marquee Wall Street firms on Mr. Santos’s campaign biography, told The Times they had no record of his ever working there. Officials at Baruch College, which Mr. Santos has said he graduated from in 2010, could find no record of anyone matching his name and date of birth graduating that year.

There was also little evidence that his animal rescue group, Friends of Pets United, was, as Mr. Santos claimed, a tax-exempt organization: The Internal Revenue Service could locate no record of a registered charity with that name.

His financial disclosure forms suggest a life of some wealth. He lent his campaign more than $700,000 during the midterm election, has donated thousands of dollars to other candidates in the last two years and reported a $750,000 salary and over $1 million in dividends from his company, the Devolder Organization.

Yet the firm, which has no public website or LinkedIn page, is something of a mystery. On a campaign website, Mr. Santos once described Devolder as his “family’s firm” that managed $80 million in assets. On his congressional financial disclosure, he described it as a capital introduction consulting company, a type of boutique firm that serves as a liaison between investment funds and deep-pocketed investors. But Mr. Santos’s disclosures did not reveal any clients, an omission three election law experts said could be problematic if such clients exist.

And while Mr. Santos has described a family fortune in real estate, he has not disclosed, nor could The Times find, records of his properties.

Mr. Santos’s eight-point victory, in a district in northern Long Island and northeast Queens that previously favored Democrats, was considered a mild upset. He had lost decisively in the same district in 2020 to Tom Suozzi, then the Democratic incumbent, and had seemed to be too wedded to former President Donald J. Trump and his stances to flip his fortunes.

His appearance earlier this month at a gala in Manhattan attended by white nationalists and right-wing conspiracy theorists underscored his ties to Mr. Trump’s right-wing base.

At the same time, new revelations uncovered by The Times — including the omission of key information on Mr. Santos’s personal financial disclosures, and criminal charges for check fraud in Brazil — have the potential to create ethical and possibly legal challenges once he takes office.

Mr. Santos did not respond to repeated requests from The Times that he furnish either documents or a résumé with dates that would help to substantiate the claims he made on the campaign trail. He also declined to be interviewed, and neither his lawyer nor Big Dog Strategies, a Republican-oriented political consulting group that handles crisis management, responded to a detailed list of questions.

The lawyer, Joe Murray, said in a short statement that it was “no surprise that Congressman-elect Santos has enemies at The New York Times who are attempting to smear his good name with these defamatory allegations.”

 

So he lied about his work at Goldman Sachs, he lied about his Baruch College degree, he lied about his family business, and oh yeah he's wanted for bad checks back in Brazil.

 

That Democrats in the state left Tom Suozzi's seat open for this clown to win it over Robert Zimmerman, figuring Zimmerman would win by osmosis or something, should serve as a critical lesson to the state's cancerous Democratic state party.

The fact that this level of scrutiny was not given to Santos until after her won with the rank lies and fabrications is a failure of the NY Times itself. This white supremacist clown should have been exposed months ago.

But the NY Democratic Party should have had this oppo research ready to go. Even an afternoon of work would have cost Santos the race, and they just didn't care to do basic due diligence.

 

Better late than never, and hopefully he faces crushing ethics and campaign finance investigations that drive him out of politics for good. But he never should have been allowed to run in the first damn place, let alone win.

 

And in the end? This is all the fault of the GOP, with another material fraudster in office.

Do better, Entire State of New Fucking York.

Ron's Gun Wrong, Con't

If you thought Florida was in trouble before, wait until everyone has a gun in the Sunshine State.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday he expects lawmakers during the 2023 regular legislative session to pass a major change in Florida gun laws.

The change would allow what supporters call “constitutional carry.”

Under current law, people who want to carry guns must get concealed-weapons licenses from the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Constitutional carry would allow people to carry guns without the licenses.

DeSantis was asked about the issue Friday during an appearance in Lee County, after House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, indicated Thursday that the House would approve constitutional carry.

“Basically, this was something that I’ve always supported,” DeSantis said. “The last two years, it was not necessarily a priority for the legislative leadership. But we’ve been talking about it, and he’s (Renner’s) pledged publicly that’s moving forward, and it’ll be something that will be done in the regular session.”

The 2023 session will start March 7.

 

I expect the law will pass easily and quickly over the objection of law enforcement, who will have to deal with even more of the populace carrying firearms, but the response is going to be "assume the suspect is packing" and just drill them full of holes.

 

On the other hand, dead people don't make DeSantis and his private prison buddies any money incarcerating them, just expect the suspects that live to be turned over to the prison system, and the rest -- especially Black folk who mistakenly believe "constitutional carry" applies to us in any way, in any state that has it -- to end up in the ground.

 

Gunmerica is bad enough. DeSantis's version, well...

Orange Meltdown, Con't

With the very real chance of Trump being referred by the House January 6th Committee to the Justice Department as soon as today, Trump is rallying his flying monkey brigades to openly engage in some "Will nobody rid me of these troublesome FBI investigators?" stochastic terrorism.

Donald Trump was slammed for another round of threats and incitement Saturday after evoking last year’s Jan. 6 insurrection — and then telling his followers it’s now time for the FBI and Justice Department “thugs” to be “dealt with.”

Critics considered the threatening messages to be a clear dog whistle to his followers, many of whom are armed. Some 62% of gun owners voted for Trump in the 2016 election. And his Oath Keeper supporters had a “massive stockpile” of weapons stashed in the Washington, D.C., area last Jan. 6 to support Trump in the event he tried to seize control of the government and remain in power, according to trial evidence.

Trump baselessly insisted in a Truth Social post that the FBI was “absolutely” involved in a “coordinated effort to change election results” to make him a loser. That justified last year’s violent Jan. 6 “protest” at the U.S. Capitol, he insisted, even though nearly 1,000 rioters have been indicted for crimes related to the insurrection that day.

Now, Trump is urging his followers on Truth Social that the “weaponized thugs and tyrants” in the FBI and DOJ “must be dealt with.”

Trump supporters on Truth Social responded by blasting the FBI as the “gestapo” and members of “organized crime,” which could put agents lives in jeopardy among Trump acolytes.





Conde Nast legal affairs editor Luke Zaleski called Trump’s brutal message the “exact speech he gave on Jan. 6.”

“He’s continuing the rhetoric that incites violence against the United States and his thugs know what ‘must be dealt with’ means,” Zaleski tweeted.

 

As I've said before, the real test of this country's future is if we survive Trump being indicted. We're nowhere hear ready as a country to have that conversation yet, but very soon we won't have a choice about having it.

Last Call For Messi, Cleaning Up

Argentina is your 2024 World Cup champ, led by the legendary Lionel Messi.

 

It took 90 minutes of regulation, 30 minutes of extra time and a penalty kick shootout to decide it — but Argentina is the 2022 World Cup champion.

It was the two superstars who stepped up first for their sides in the shootout. France kicked first and Kylian Mbappé, who had a hat trick in the game, blasted it by Argentina's Emiliano Martínez.

Next up was the legend. Lionel Messi approached the spot and calmly rolled one in to tie it up.

That tit for tat exchange was fitting for a match where each side's talisman turned in an inspired performance.

But after that, France missed their next two attempts to give Argentina a big advantage. And after Gonzalo Montiel made it four in a row for Argentina, it was over.

Going into the shootout, the two sides were tied at 3-3 after some truly epic moments of open play.

Messi’s two goals helped La Albiceleste capture their third World Cup and first since Diego Maradona led the team to glory in 1986 in Mexico.

The defending champion France was seeking to become the first team to win back-to-back World Cup titles in 60 years (Brazil 1958, 1962).

Despite the loss, France’s Kylian Mbappé’s hat trick secured him the Golden Boot, awarded to the tournament’s leading goal scorer.

 

Messi gets what Ronaldo was denied: a WC finals win.

 

And as for Mbappe...here's someone who scored a hat trick in the finals in nearly sixty years to singlehandedly keep France in the match and his team still lost on PKs.

 

That one's going to leave a scar. 

 

On to North America in four years...hopefully.

Our Little White Supremacist Domestic Terrorism Problem, Con't

While white nationalist violence continues daily against LGBTQ+, Muslim, Black, Hispanic and Asian folk here in the US, let's not forget that antisemitic violence is at the highest point in our lifetimes.

The New York Police Department is investigating an alleged attack in Central Park this week in which a man in his mid-40s assaulted a 63-year-old man and spewed antisemitic comments before yelling out “Kanye 2024,” a reference to rapper Ye’s recent antisemitic rhetoric.

The older man was walking in Central Park about 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday when the other man allegedly hit him from behind, according to police. When the older man fell to the ground, he broke his hand and chipped a tooth, authorities said.

The attacker then uttered “numerous” antisemitic comments toward the man, according to police. Before the attacker fled on a bicycle — with a trailer featuring a sign reading “Hungry Disabled” — police say he referenced the artist formerly known as Kanye West, who has issued several antisemitic tirades, saying “Kanye 2024.”

The 63-year-old man, who has not been publicly identified, was hospitalized in stable condition, police said.

Antisemitic attacks in the United States are at an all-time high. An audit released in April by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) showed that 2,717 antisemitic incidents were reported to the organization in 2021. That total represents the highest number of incidents since the ADL started tracking antisemitic attacks in 1979 — and a 34 percent increase from 2020.

The incidents, the ADL said, include “criminal and noncriminal acts of harassment and intimidation, including distribution of hate propaganda, threats and slurs, as well as vandalism and assault.”

Antisemitic attacks have spiked in New York, with an increase of 125 percent last month compared with November 2021, according to data released by the NYPD and reported by the New York ABC affiliate. This month, the NYPD arrested a man who was accused of firing a BB gun at a Jewish father and son outside a kosher supermarket in Staten Island, CBS reported. In another incident, an online threat to attack a New York synagogue, two men — one of whom is Jewish — were indicted by a grand jury, according to CNN.

 

Meanwhile, white evangelical Christian Republicans continue to believe that they are the most persecuted group in the US, and nearly half of Americans believe the US should be declared a Christian country.

And all the while we have a Supreme Court that is systematically disabling the protections of minority groups because they believe those protections violate the rights of the majority to discriminate, block, hate, and harm minority groups.

So here we are. Be careful out there, and always speak out about injustices like this. People are being hurt and even killed.

Don't remain silent.

Sunday Long Read: Membrane In The Ukraine

This week's Sunday Long Read is the NY Times investigation into how Vladimir Putin made the decision to invade Ukraine in February, and how it will be a fateful choice that will affect the history of Earth for a long time to come.

They never had a chance.

Fumbling blindly through cratered farms, the troops from Russia’s 155th Naval Infantry Brigade had no maps, medical kits or working walkie-talkies, they said. Just a few weeks earlier, they had been factory workers and truck drivers, watching an endless showcase of supposed Russian military victories at home on state television before being drafted in September. One medic was a former barista who had never had any medical training.

Now, they were piled onto the tops of overcrowded armored vehicles, lumbering through fallow autumn fields with Kalashnikov rifles from half a century ago and virtually nothing to eat, they said. Russia had been at war most of the year, yet its army seemed less prepared than ever. In interviews, members of the brigade said some of them had barely fired a gun before and described having almost no bullets anyway, let alone air cover or artillery. But it didn’t frighten them too much, they said. They would never see combat, their commanders had promised.

Only when the shells began crashing around them, ripping their comrades to pieces, did they realize how badly they had been duped.

Flung to the ground, a drafted Russian soldier named Mikhail recalled opening his eyes to a shock: the shredded bodies of his comrades littering the field. Shrapnel had sliced open his belly, too. Desperate to escape, he said, he crawled to a thicket of trees and tried to dig a ditch with his hands.

Of the 60 members of his platoon near the eastern Ukrainian town of Pavlivka that day in late October, about 40 were killed, said Mikhail, speaking by phone from a military hospital outside Moscow. Only eight, he said, escaped serious injury.

“This isn’t war,” Mikhail said, struggling to speak through heavy, liquid breaths. “It’s the destruction of the Russian people by their own commanders.

President Vladimir V. Putin’s war was never supposed to be like this. When the head of the C.I.A. traveled to Moscow last year to warn against invading Ukraine, he found a supremely confident Kremlin, with Mr. Putin’s national security adviser boasting that Russia’s cutting-edge armed forces were strong enough to stand up even to the Americans.

Russian invasion plans, obtained by The New York Times, show that the military expected to sprint hundreds of miles across Ukraine and triumph within days. Officers were told to pack their dress uniforms and medals in anticipation of military parades in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

But instead of that resounding victory, with tens of thousands of his troops killed and parts of his army in shambles after nearly 10 months of war, Mr. Putin faces something else entirely: his nation’s greatest human and strategic calamity since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

 

Putin will go down in history as one of the great villains, but none more so than in Russia itself.  He has destroyed the country for a generation, and when his power collapses, it's going to be an absolute mess. I don't know what will rise from the ashes of Putin's Russia, and anyone who tells you that they know is a liar. The real question is how much damage he does to the planet before he's removed.

 

Last Call For Grays And Greens

The Pentagon isn't about to confirm the existence of aliens, but the Defense Department's new Office Of Weird Crap will go over all the reported encounters with unidentified "anomalies" just in case.

 

A new office at the Pentagon is scrutinizing hundreds of reports of unidentified objects in air, sea, space and beyond, senior U.S. defense officials said Friday, and while it has discovered no signs of alien life, the search is set to expand.

The issue has taken on increasing seriousness as a bipartisan group of lawmakers presses the Defense Department to investigate instances of unidentified phenomena and disclose publicly what they learn. Established in July, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office is evaluating recent reports and soon could evaluate accounts that date back decades, officials said.

The Pentagon’s top intelligence official, Ronald Moultrie, told reporters during a news conference, the first to discuss the office and its ongoing work, that “At this time … we have nothing” to affirm the existence of space aliens.

The proliferation of drones, including those operated by foreign adversaries and amateur hobbyists, account for many of the reports, officials said.

“Some of these things almost collide with planes,” said Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the new office, who spoke to the media alongside Moultrie on Friday. “We see that on a regular basis.”

The U.S. government employs sophisticated sensors around the globe to collect data, and the office analyzes it for relevant information, they said, declining to elaborate.

While most of the reports the Pentagon investigates are about aerial objects, defense officials are increasingly concerned about unusual activity below the surface of the ocean, in space and on land. For that reason, the Pentagon now uses the term unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP, rather than previous descriptions such as “unidentified flying object.”

Moultrie said that, “Unidentified phenomena in all domains … pose potential threats to personal security and operational security, and they deserve our urgent attention.”

Unidentified “trans-medium” objects, he said, is a class of phenomena that would jump between domains, like from the air to the sea. None has been documented yet, Moultrie noted.

The research is likely to expand next year. Congress wrote a provision into the next defense policy bill, which is awaiting President Biden’s signature, that requires the Defense Department to complete a “historical record report” about detailing unidentified phenomena observed and documented by the United States. If approved by Biden, the National Defense Authorization Act will then trigger “quite a research project, if you will, into the archives,” Kirkpatrick said.

Defense officials already are digging through old reports. Kirkpatrick, a physicist and career intelligence officer, said he will “adhere to the scientific method — and I will follow that data and science wherever it goes.” Some past reports, he acknowledged, may be highly classified and not yet known to him.

 

So yeah, Mulder and Scully are on the job in this era of instant information, deepfakes, drones and conspiracy theories. Even the Pentagon has to admit publicly now that the truth is out there.

Has to be a really wildly compelling job though if all my years watching X-Files, Special Unit 2, Warehouse 13 and Alien Nation meant anything.

 

 

Our Little White Supremacist Domestic Terrorist Problem, Con't

An accused January 6th terrorist from Tennessee is now facing even more criminal legal trouble after being charged with a terrorist plot to kill the FBI agents investigating his previous January 6th terrorism.

 

Edward Kelley, who was previously charged with assaulting an officer during the Capitol riot, and Austin Carter, also from Tennessee, have been charged with conspiracy, retaliating against a federal official, interstate threats and solicitation to commit a crime of violence.

According to an affidavit, Kelley and Carter had a list of names of 37 law enforcement members to assassinate.

The list noted which officers were involved in Kelley’s arrest in May in Knoxville, Tennessee, on the January 6-related charges or present during the search of his home, and it included some of their phone numbers, according to the affidavit.

An “acquaintance” of Kelley and Carter gave the list to police and began cooperating with investigators, according to the affidavit.

CNN has reached out to Kelley’s attorney. Carter’s attorney, Joshua Hedrick, told CNN in a statement, “Our investigation is only just beginning, but we are looking forward to providing a zealous defense of Mr. Carter, who has asserted his innocence.”

In a news release Friday, the Justice Department said Kelley not only discussed attacking law enforcement agents with Carter and their unnamed acquaintance, but also planned to attack the FBI’s Knoxville, Tennessee Field Office.

“If I’m extradited to DC or you don’t hear about my status within 24 or 48 hours..if they are coming to arrest me again, start it,” Kelley told the acquaintance during a recorded call Wednesday, according to the affidavit. “You guys are taking them out at their office. What you and [Carter] need to do is recruit as many as you can…and you’re going to attack their office.”

When the acquaintance asked if Carter was in support of part of Kelley’s plans, Carter told the individual that “this is the time, add up or put up” and “to definitely make sure you got everything racked, locked up and loaded.”

 

We already had the attempted terrorist attack on the Cincinnati FBI field office this year in retaliation against the search of Mar-a-Lago for stolen classified materials. What do you think's going to happen when Trump starts facing indictments?

Oh, and if a Black or Muslim man plotted to kill dozens of FBI agents, the right wing noise machine would be talking about it for years.  January 6th terrorist does it and nary a peep out of the BACK THE BLUE crowd.

There's a reason for that.

Cajun Country Criming

If you can't beat your lifelong rival for parish Sheriff in a fair election, blow 'em up with a pipe bomb, right?

Politics is serious business in Cajun country, but Lafourche Parish Sheriff Duffy Breaux said he didn’t think it would get so serious that a onetime rival for office would try to kill him.

Social patterns are strongly influenced in this town 50 miles southwest of New Orleans by those who work in the dominant industries, oilfield roughnecks, commercial fishermen and farmers - quick to laugh and quick to anger.

They love good times, LSU football and politics.

U.S. Attorney John Volz says former sheriff Cyrus ″Bobby″ Tardo, 58, twice defeated for office by Breaux, hired a crew of former law officers and their associates to set a pipe bomb that almost blew Breaux’s foot off 10 days before Christmas.

Tardo also was charged last week with attempted first-degree murder in Lafourche Parish, where a bond of $2 million has been set for him.

Tardo and his three co-defendants have all professed their innocents, though they have not yet entered pleas.

Investigating authorities have declined to speculate on a motive, but Breaux said political revenge may have been involved.

″I can only see one thing - it’s a political thing,″ Breaux said. ″I always defeated him. Maybe he wanted me out of the way. I never thought a man would stoop that low.″

Tardo, a former state policeman, was elected sheriff in 1971. Breaux defeated him for the sheriff’s office in 1975, then won again when Tardo challenged him in 1979. Tardo then ran for parish president and won. He lost that post to Vernon Galliano in 1986. Parish is the Louisiana term for county.

Louis Breaux, a cousin of the sheriff and a second-term councilman, said he cannot believe the charges brought against Tardo.

″Talk to anyone in the parish. It’s hard to believe. He was pretty much of a loner, not much of a good mixer, not a hothead at all,″ he said Friday. ″People take their politics seriously in Lafourche Parish, but to try to kill a man? That’s going pretty far out.″

 

Something tells me Pardo and Breaux have hated each other for decades, and they finally made national news over that seething rivalry. Congrats, gents. It'll make a fascinating HBO comedy.

Last Call For A Taxing Explanation, Con't

With the House Democrats about out of time for Trump investigations, the issue of Trump's tax returns may find the Dems releasing those returns to the public next week.

 

House Democrats will likely unmask new details about former President Donald Trump’s long-hidden taxes following a key meeting now set for next week.

That would be a highly unusual move sure to ignite another post-presidential controversy surrounding Trump, who is running again for the White House.

Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal won access to Trump’s filings in November, after a long court fight, but they remain closely held, with only a handful of lawmakers and aides allowed to examine them. They’re still protected by strict privacy laws that make it a felony for anyone to divulge even basic details about Trump’s taxes.

But there is a way around those rules: Neal’s committee could vote privately to make them public, and that’s what the Massachusetts Democrat wants his colleagues to consider in a closed-door meeting now set for Tuesday at 3 p.m.

Democrats intend to release specifics from the returns, though what exactly will be unveiled is unclear. They could release Trump’s entire returns or perhaps something more limited, such as a summary.

Most of Neal’s colleagues have yet to see the filings, though he has granted access to the panel’s ranking Republican, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas).

It would be extremely rare for lawmakers to forcibly release someone’s tax information, especially a former president’s, and Trump was not legally required to disclose any of his tax information while he was running for president or after he was elected.

But he defied a decades-old tradition of presidents voluntarily releasing their returns, incensing Democrats, who waged a three-and-a-half year court fight for the documents. A century-old law allows the heads of Congress’ tax committees to see anyone’s returns.

Many Democrats say the public has a right to know where the president’s earnings come from, and how much he pays in taxes. They also want to know how vigorously the IRS has been implementing a long-standing policy of automatically auditing every president.

“Nearly four years ago, the Ways and Means Committee set out to fulfill our legislative and oversight responsibilities, and evaluate the Internal Revenue Service’s mandatory audit program,” said Neal, in a statement.

“As affirmed by the Supreme Court, the law was on our side, and on Tuesday, I will update the members of the committee.”

Democrats believe the law granting Neal access to the filings only applies to the chairs of the tax panels, not their ranking members, so they’re racing to act before Republicans take over the House on Jan. 3.

Neal demanded Trump’s personal returns and filings for eight business entities from 2015 to 2020.

That overlaps with some of the records previously reported by the New York Times but also includes ones from additional years.

Trump’s real estate business was convicted earlier this month of tax fraud. He is promising an appeal.

 

So between Trump's tax returns and the January 6th Committee's final report, next week is going to be an absolute hurricane.

Stay tuned, dear readers. We're going to have a lot on our hands in a few days.

Orange Meltdown, Con't

Trump didn't change the narrative from his legal troubles with his NFT trading card nonsense. so noe people are going to be talking next week about the charges the January 6th Committee will vote on recommending.

The Jan. 6 select committee is preparing to vote on urging the Justice Department to pursue at least three criminal charges against former President Donald Trump, including insurrection.

The report that the select panel is expected to consider on Monday afternoon, described to POLITICO by two people familiar with its contents, reflects some recommendations from a subcommittee that evaluated potential criminal referrals. Among the charges that subcommittee proposes for Trump: 18 U.S.C. 2383 Insurrection; 18 U.S.C. 1512(c) obstruction of an official proceeding; and 18 U.S.C. 371 Conspiracy to defraud the United States government.

It’s unclear whether the report will recommend additional charges for Trump beyond the three described to POLITICO. The document, according to the people familiar, includes an extensive justification for the recommended charges.

 

Indeed, House Democrats aren't waiting for those charges to be actually filed by the Justice Department and Special Counsel Jack Smith, and are looking to bar Trump from future office under the 14th Amendment.

House Democrats introduced legislation Thursday—sure to never make it out of a GOP-led House that takes over in January—that would bar former President Donald Trump from being president again under the 14th Amendment, part of a broader effort by Democrats and activists to keep Trump from holding future office through a little-used constitutional provision as he launches his 2024 campaign.

Section Three of the 14th Amendment states no one can serve in Congress or “hold any office, civil or military” who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the [United States], or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

More than 40 House Democrats introduced a bill Thursday that would disqualify Trump from office under that statute based on his trying to overturn the 2020 election and “mobilizing, inciting, and aiding” his supporters who attacked the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, which the bill argues constitutes engaging in an insurrection.

The bill points to Section Five of the 14th Amendment as giving Congress the power to enforce Trump’s disqualification under the amendment, but the Congressional Research Service notes that it’s possible Trump could also be barred from office without Congress and through lawsuits or criminal charges being brought against him instead.

The Justice Department could charge Trump with treason or engaging in an insurrection, which would likely result in him being prohibited from holding office if found guilty, the CRS notes, and charges against him could also give lawmakers more leverage to successfully use the 14th Amendment against him in Congress.

A rival candidate or voters could also try suing Trump and asking a court to bar him from taking office, the CRS notes, though it would be up to judges or the Supreme Court to determine if that strategy would succeed. 

Advocacy groups Free Speech for People and Mi Familia People have launched a campaign asking Secretaries of State and other elections officials to declare Trump is disqualified from being elected as president in their state’s election, which could keep Trump from being president if enough battleground states decided to keep him off the ballot to affect the election results.

51%. That’s the share of respondents in a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday who believe Trump should be disqualified from holding office under the 14th Amendment, after he called for “terminating” the Constitution in order to reverse his 2020 election loss.

 

And while that might even get a vote in the House, it'll never pass the Senate.

 

House Republicans will never allow Trump to be banished, even if convicted. their MAGA constituents will turn on them with breathtaking violence if they do.

 

Still, it'll be bad times ahead for Tang the Conqueror.