Gaetz, Stefanik, 60 Colleagues Advance Resolution Saying Trump Not Insurrectionist

WASHINGTON — Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and more than 60 of their Republican colleagues have advanced a resolution declaring former President Donald Trump “did not engage in insurrection” prior, during or after the siege of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“We believe Congress has a unique role in making that declaration,” Gaetz said during a briefing with reporters Tuesday.

“It’s not the job of the states — and especially not the job of some bureaucrats in Colorado — to make this assessment and interfere with the rights of voters to cast their vote for the candidate of their choice,” he said as many of the resolution’s supporters gathered in a conference room adjacent to the Capitol Visitor Center.

The filing of the resolution came just two days before the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a case concerning Trump’s appeal of the Colorado State Supreme Court ruling declaring him ineligible to be on the state’s presidential election ballot.

At the heart of the case is whether Trump violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment in the days and weeks after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. 

The section explicitly bars those who have taken an oath to support the Constitution from holding office if they “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

So far, only Colorado and Maine have disqualified Trump from their ballots, citing the section; other states, including California, have chosen not to take that step.

But the House measure is no doubt intended to influence the high court, the many lower courts and the state election officials who are currently considering whether Trump is eligible to hold office again under the post-Civil War amendment’s ban on insurrectionists.

Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, is introducing a companion measure in the Senate.

Stefanik, who is also the Republican Conference chair in the House, said efforts to prevent Trump from being on 2024 presidential ballots across the country “are nothing more than a targeted political witch hunt” intended to further an “extreme far-left political agenda and hijack the will of the American people.”

“Come Election Day, as President Donald Trump continues to dominate in the polls, extreme Democrats will stop at nothing in an attempt to prevent [him] from returning to the White House,” she said.

Gaetz also slammed Trump’s critics, saying that “the very experts who often get on television and talk about securing democracy seem to be the first to want to then remove a candidate from the ballot because they are afraid that he is too popular.”

In 2021, the Democratic-controlled House took the extraordinary step of impeaching Trump a second time, and after he had already left office, for incitement of insurrection after he summoned a large crowd to Washington that ultimately attacked the Capitol and injured about 150 police officers. 

He was acquitted by the Senate, but he now faces related criminal charges. 

On Tuesday, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia dealt the former president a legal blow in regard to the latter, holding that he’s not immune from prosecution on the latter for illegal acts he allegedly committed while in office.

Gaetz closed his portion of Tuesday’s news briefing by saying 63 of his Republican colleagues had already signed on as co-sponsors of the resolution, “and we expect many more to do so in the coming days.”

“Now is the time for members of the House and Senate to show where they stand on this question,” he said. “We look forward to a floor vote.”

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue