Rep. Raskin says Trump is ineligible for public office according to Constitution

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said during an interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room” on Thursday that the 14^th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution makes it clear that former President Donald Trump is ineligible to hold public office.

“It is a ridiculous claim that the president can commit any crime that he or she wants while in office and can’t be prosecuted, whether it’s murder or rape or conspiracy to overthrow the government,” Raskin said in the interview. “… So, the Supreme Court must decide this question as quickly as possible if justice is to be served, and it’s got to reject the extravagant and baseless claim of presidential immunity.”

The representative from Takoma Park is a former constitutional law professor and said that this is the Supreme Court’s chance to practice their values of textualism and originalism.

“If Donald Trump is not disqualified from holding office again after what he did on Jan. 6 in the weeks leading up to it, then who is disqualified? Why would they read an entire provision out of the constitution?” Raskin said.

Raskin’s remarks come days after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump is disqualified from holding the presidency under the Constitution’s insurrection clause within the 14^th Amendment. The ruling ordered Colorado’s secretary of state to exclude the former president’s name from the state’s 2024 Republican presidential primary ballot.

The insurrection clause appears in Section 3 of the 14^th Amendment and states that public officials who have previously taken an oath to uphold the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” are ineligible to hold public office.

In September, Maryland Secretary of State Susan Lee reiterated her office’s consideration about whether to remove Trump from the primary election ballot, while attending MoCo360’s Women Who Inspire Luncheon in Bethesda.

“I am very aware of that issue, and the issue is under consideration right now,” Lee said. “I probably have to make a decision by Jan. 22. And I am right now working with my team and my legal team too because we want to do this right, and we want to make sure it’s fair.”

Raskin did not explicitly say in the interview on Thursday if he would support the removal of Trump’s name from the Maryland presidential ballot but says the Constitution “could not be any clearer.”

Raskin could not be immediately reached by email Friday afternoon.