US Congressman David Cicilline of Rhode Island, chair of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, says he is drafting legislation and seeking support among his colleagues on Capitol Hill to prevent Former President Donald Trump from holding public office again. Earlier this week, Trump announced his campaign to return to The White House in 2024.
Reports LGBTQ Nation:
Politico journalist Nicholas Wu reports that Cicilline, who was one of the managers of Trump’s second impeachment, is trying to get support for legislation to bar Trump from running for office, citing the 14th Amendment for authority.
“Given the proof – demonstrated through the January 6th Committee Hearings, the 2021 impeachment trial, and other reporting – that Donald Trump engaged in insurrection on January 6th with the intention of overturning the lawful 2020 election results, I have drafted legislation that would prevent Donald Trump from holding public office again under the Fourteenth Amendment,” a letter Cicilline is circulating in Congress reads.
The letter says that Trump, “despite knowing that the election results were lawful; attempted to intimidate state and federal officials when they did not support his false claims and unlawful plans.” It specifically cites how Trump tried to influence Mike Pence to abuse his role as the leader of the Senate and reject the results of the 2020 election so that Trump could remain in the White House.
Last year, Cicilline introduced articles of impeachment in the House that led to Trump’s second impeachment. He was later named one of the impeachment managers and brought the case to the Senate.
“We’ve seen this back-sliding of democracy and attempted coups in places all over the world, but never imagined it could ever happen in the United States of America,” he later told The Hill. “And we were watching it unfold before our very eyes. So it was really clear to me from that very first moment that we had to do something to hold the president at the time accountable for his incitement of this violence.”
Read the complete LGBTQ Nation story here.
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