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To run for president, a candidate needs to be eligible for the office under the Constitution. The requirements are relatively straightforward: Someone must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, who’s at least 35 years old, and who’s been a resident of the United States for at least 14 years.
Subsequent amendments have added to this list. For example, under the 25th Amendment, if someone has already served two full terms, he or she is also ineligible to run.
And then, of course, there’s Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars any public official who swore an oath to protect the Constitution from holding office if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against it or gave “aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” Because of Donald Trump’s post-defeat efforts, and his role in attacking his own country’s democracy, the Republican’s eligibility for the ballot in two states — and counting — is in doubt.
This, evidently, has given some Republicans an unfortunate idea: If Trump’s eligibility is in question, maybe they should go after President Joe Biden’s eligibility, too.
A few weeks ago, for example, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared on Newsmax and said officials in red states should start exploring ways to remove the Democratic incumbent from the 2024 ballot. Two days earlier, Dan Patrick, Texas’ GOP lieutenant governor, pushed the same idea, arguing on Fox News that the White House’s immigration policies might disqualify Biden from the Lone Star State’s ballot in the fall.
Late last week, NBC News reported that Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft made related threats, suggesting it would be fair to retaliate against the incumbent president because of the legal pushback his predecessor is facing.
That didn’t appear to make any substantive sense, though the Missouri Republican was offered an opportunity to elaborate on his plans during an on-air CNN interview. As The New Republic noted, the interview really didn’t go well.
When CNN anchor Boris Sanchez asked Ashcroft what justification he would have for such a move, Ashcroft faltered. “There have been allegations that he’s engaged in insurrection,” Ashcroft said of Biden. When Sanchez pressed him to give more details, Ashcroft said he had “seen allegations from the lieutenant governor of Texas,” but then suddenly seemed incapable of stringing a sentence together.
It’s worth noting for context that these questions were not sprung on the Missouri secretary of state out of nowhere. Ashcroft raised this subject himself, publicly raising the prospect of going after Biden’s eligibility. The GOP official also agreed to appear on CNN to answer questions about this.
But when pressed on his position, Ashcroft appeared utterly lost. In fact, at times it appeared the CNN anchor was more familiar with Missouri’s constitution than his guest.
If recent history is any guide, these Republicans hoping to retaliate against the Democratic president will soon have allies. Perhaps they’ll have better answers to the same questions — or perhaps they’ll simply confess that they’re trying to mindlessly go after Biden because of legitimate questions surrounding Trump.