Former President Trump Calls For ‘Termination’ Of The U.S Constitution Transcript

The former president of the United States and current Republican candidate for president in 2024 now explicitly calling for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles in the constitution. Donald Trump sharing that message on his social media platform this weekend as he continues to re-litigate his 2020 presidential loss with bogus claims and conspiracies. Newsy White House correspondent Kellan Howell how joins us now from the nation’s capital. And Kellan, Trump is making these comments not long after announcing his bid for the White House.

That’s right, Jay. And ever since announcing that bid, this has become something of a theme, where Republican lawmakers are finding themselves under a magnifying glass in the wake of the latest scandal involving comments that their party’s current front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination have made. Today, several Republican lawmakers facing questions over whether or not they could support a presidential candidate who is now openly calling for the US Constitution to be torn up.

Some Republican lawmakers on Sunday sharply criticized former president Donald Trump over his social media post calling for the US Constitution to be terminated.

First off, I vehemently disagree with the statement that Trump has made.

On Saturday the former president falsely claimed in a post on Truth Social that big tech companies and the Democratic National Committee committed massive fraud in the 2020 election and called for the termination of the Constitution in order to overturn the election results. Trump’s post came after Twitter owner Elon Musk released internal documents on the platform’s decision to limit access to a news story about Hunter Biden’s laptop just three weeks before the election. Ohio Republican Congressman Mike Turner warned that Trump’s claims could hurt him in the 2024 election.

Do you condemn him saying something like this?

Absolutely. And I believe, answering your question, that people certainly are going to take into consideration a statement like this as they evaluate a candidate.

Newly elected New York Republican Mike Lawler also said Trump’s words would alienate him from some conservative voters.

Frankly, I think people are tired of looking backwards. I think people are tired of discussing the grievances of prior elections, and they want to know what we’re going to do to address the challenges. And I think the former president would be well advised to focus on the future if he is going to run for president again.

The former president’s comment is now putting some self-proclaimed constitutional conservatives in the hot seat over their support for him, like House Republican David Joyce, who on Sunday refused to disavow the former president over his comment.

This is what I’m asking. I’m asking you, if he’s the nominee, will you support him?

I will support whoever the Republican nominee is. And I just don’t think that, at this point, he’ll be able to get there because I think there’s a lot of other good quality candidates out there.

A White House spokesman responded to Trump on Saturday saying in a statement, “You cannot only love America when you win.” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates added that, “The Constitution is the ultimate monument to all of the Americans who have given their lives to defeat self-serving despots that abused their power and trampled on fundamental rights. Attacking the Constitution and all it stands for is an anathema to the soul of our nation and should be universally condemned.”

And Jay, this is just the latest in a string of controversies surrounding Donald Trump ever since he announced his candidacy for president in 2024. In fact, just on Friday prosecutors in a New York trial looking into potential tax fraud in the Trump organization gave their closing arguments, and in that argument said that Donald Trump himself was fully aware of a scheme that was hatched by these business executives to avoid paying personal income taxes. That verdict is still in the hands of the jury. We haven’t gotten it yet. They’re expected to begin deliberations on that on Monday. Jay?

Yeah, just one of several investigations into the former president. Newsy’s Kellan Howell outside the White House for us. Thanks Kellan.