Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has proven to be one of former President Donald J. Trump’s most ardent critics in the Republican Party. The two find themselves competing for the same prize in 2024: the Republican Party presidential nomination.
Yet, Christie opposes the attempt to disqualify the former president from running for office again based on the “Insurrection Clause” of the Fourteenth Amendment. According to the former governor, Trump has not yet been convicted of any crime that rises to the level of removing the forty-fifth president from the ballot in key swing states.
That is, of course, unless Donald Trump is convicted for either the Georgia state case or the federal prosecution against him regarding allegations that he attempted to incite an insurrection on January 6.
Under the standards of the Insurrection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment:
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.
Christie is Worried About the Country
Even then, however, Gov. Christie disagrees with the attempt to kick Donald Trump off the ballot, should he be convicted in either of those cases. That’s because, according to Christie, it would be bad for the republic.
In his estimation, pulling Trump from the ballot would only antagonize the already deep political divide in America. It would likely create yet another constitutional crisis involving the former president.
And it might very well lead to even more damaging violence of the kind that Americans experienced on January 6.
This is an interesting take, considering that Christie and the other Republicans challenging Trump for the GOP nomination would likely benefit from Donald Trump’s removal from the ballot. Still, it makes sense, because if one were being objective, Christie is clearly someone deeply committed to the rule of law. His entire career is a reflection of that.
Christie, it appears, is trying to put the country first.
Christie’s sense is correct. Removing Trump from the ballot would be devastating for the United States. It would generate the kind of political violence that would tear the republic apart. In fact, that could be the trigger for a civil war or some form of wider civil disturbance.
And that’s precisely why the Democrats and their allies in the Administrative State and the “mainstream” media are pushing for the invocation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Get Donald Trump
Presently, Trump is running circles not only around his Republican presidential opponents. But in key swing states, it looks as though Trump is favored over President Joe Biden. These are the key swing states that will determine the outcome of the presidential election in 2024. And Trump appears on track to replicate the electoral miracle he enjoyed in 2016 again in 2024.
That is, unless the so-called “Deep State” can stop Trump. Because relying on a free and fair electoral process is, at this point, unlikely to yield the results the Democrats desire in 2024.
What’s more, agitating for the kind of political violence that we already saw on January 6, 2021, would give the vicious partisans in the Administrative State all the excuse they’d need to fully implement their domestic war on terrorism that they’ve been pining for since Trump was first elected to the presidency.
Again, the forces that Trump has unleashed upon the country are an obvious threat to the people in power in Washington, D.C., Wall Street, and elsewhere. His return to the White House would not only be destabilizing for the tenuous domestic tranquility we all yearn for, but he would be a direct and severe threat to the members of the permanent state.
Christie is correct: using the Fourteenth Amendment to disqualify Trump from holding office will not be good for America. It will trigger dark forces embedded within our body politic.
But that’s what the Democrats are pining for: to defeat Trump outside of an election and, as they hope, militate his followers into such an extreme, violent action that it necessitates a severe response from the security state.
A 19FortyFive Senior Editor and an energy analyst at the The-Pipeline, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (Encounter Books), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert occasionally serves as a Subject Matter Expert for various organizations, including the Department of Defense. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon. The views expressed in his opinion pieces – like this one – are his own.
