Trump calls for suspending Constitution, drawing White House rebuke - The Washington Post 2022-12-04, 1:44 PM

Democracy Dies in Darkness

White House rebukes Trump’s

suggestion to suspend
Constitution over 2020
election
By Karoun Demirjian and Toluse Olorunnipa
December 3, 2022 at 8:15 p.m. EST

The White House issued a stern rebuke on Saturday after former president Donald Trump suggested suspending the
Constitution in his ongoing crusade to discredit the results of the 2020 election.

“Attacking the Constitution and all it stands for is anathema to the soul of our nation and should be universally
condemned,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement, calling the Constitution a “sacrosanct
document.”

“You cannot only love America when you win,” he added.

Trump’s message on the Truth Social platform reiterated the baseless claims he has made since 2020 that the
election was stolen. But he went further by suggesting that the country abandon one of its founding documents.

“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even
those found in the Constitution,” Trump wrote.

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Trump calls for suspending Constitution, drawing White House rebuke - The Washington Post 2022-12-04, 1:44 PM

The post came a day after Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, claimed he would expose how Twitter engaged in “free
speech suppression” in the run-up to the 2020 election. But his “Twitter Files” did not show that the tech giant bent
to the will of Democrats.

“UNPRECEDENTED FRAUD REQUIRES UNPRECEDENTED CURE!” Trump followed up in another post on

Saturday afternoon on Truth Social.

Trump, who last month announced he would run again for president, helped launch Truth Social after he was
banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Musk has said he would allow Trump
back on Twitter but the former president has not rejoined the platform.

Trump’s sustained and unfounded attacks on the 2020 election result culminated in the attack by his supporters on
the U.S. Capitol. Many GOP candidates also echoed his false claims ahead of this year’s midterms, but lost their
efforts to win key state posts.

In the weeks since the midterms, Trump has continued to press the lie that the 2020 election was rigged as he has
announced his next White House bid.

The Democratic National Committee condemned his comments on Saturday, as did several other politicians.

“Trump’s words and actions are unacceptable, they stoke hatred and political violence, and they are dangerous,”
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) wrote in a tweet.

“Trump just called for the suspension of the Constitution and it is the final straw for zero republicans, especially the
ones who call themselves ‘constitutional conservatives,’” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) wrote on Twitter.

As he has done before, the former president also baited GOP leaders into weighing in on his claims.

“I wonder what Mitch McConnell, the RINOS, and all of the weak Republicans who couldn’t get the Presidential
Election of 2020 approved and out of the way fast enough, are thinking now?” he wrote Saturday in a subsequent
Truth Social post.

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