Rep. Raskin Says Clarence Thomas Should Recuse Himself From Trump 14th Amendment Decision

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) suggested that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from a future ruling on whether former President Trump can be disqualified from the 2024 ballot under the 14th Amendment.

Raskin argued on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Thomas should recuse himself from the 14th Amendment review because his wife believed Trump rightfully won the 2020 election.

“Anybody looking at this in any kind of dispassionate, reasonable way would say if your wife was involved in the ‘big lie’ and claiming that Donald Trump actually won the presidential election and been agitating for that and participating in the events leading up to Jan. 6, that you shouldn’t be participating,” he said.

.@RepRaskin tells @DanaBashCNN that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should “absolutely” recuse himself from any future 14th Amendment ballot disqualification case against Donald Trump, but “the question is, what do we do if he doesn’t recuse himself?” pic.twitter.com/1SW5F9v2Sj

— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) December 31, 2023

“He should recuse himself,” Raskin added in response to a direct question from host Dana Bash.

Raskin then insinuated that Democrats may take some kind of political or legal action if Thomas doesn’t recuse himself.

“The question is, what do we do if he doesn’t?” he asked.

“What do we do if he doesn’t?”

Remember that the White House encouraged illegal intimidation of justices at their homes during the Dobbs decision after an assassination attempt on Kavanaugh https://t.co/dbSen53ya1

— Auron MacIntyre (@AuronMacintyre) December 31, 2023

Despite the fact nobody, including Trump himself, was charged with “insurrection” for January 6, the Colorado Supreme Court and Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows concluded Trump “incited an insurrection” in violation of the 14th Amendment and is therefore disqualified from running for president.

Raskin declined to say whether Colorado and Maine’s moves to block Trump from the 2024 ballot make him a martyr, but claimed Trump will “overturn the election again” if he’s allowed to run against Joe Biden and loses.

“The question is, what does the Constitution say? Donald Trump can strike the pose of the martyr in any given context,” Raskin said. 

“If he’s allowed to stay on the ballot, despite his clear incitement of an insurrection and attempt to overturn the results in the 2020 election, and he loses to Joe Biden… he will feel himself a martyr there, and he will try to overturn the election result again.”

Trump has been added back onto the Colorado ballot pending the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the Colorado Supreme Court decision.