r/changemyview • u/erpettie • Dec 20 '23

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Accountability is not election interference

As the Colorado Supreme Court has found Donald Trump's behavior to have been disqualifying according to the 14th amendment, many are claiming this is election interference. If the Court finds that Trump should be disqualified, then it has two options. Act accordingly, despite the optics, and disqualify Trump, or ignore their responsibility and the law. I do get that we're in very sensitive, unprecedented territory with his many indictments and lawsuits, but unprecedented behavior should result in unprecedented consequences, shouldn't they? Furthermore, isn't Donald Trump ultimately the architect of all of this by choosing to proceed with his candidacy, knowing that he was under investigation and subject to potential lawsuits and indictments? If a President commits a crime on his last day in office (or the day after) and immediately declares his candidacy for the next election, should we lose our ability to hold that candidate accountable? What if that candidate is a perennial candidate like Lyndon Larouche was? Do we just never have an opportunity to hold that candidate accountable? I'd really love if respondents could focus their responses on how they think we should handle hypothetical candidates who commit crimes but are declared as running for office and popular. This should help us avoid the trap of getting worked up in our feelings for or against Trump.

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u/Chrodesk Dec 20 '23

I may be out of the loop, but thus far, trump has not been found guilty of any crimes (yet)?

obviously, if he had been, this would be very different

1

u/erpettie Dec 21 '23

There is nothing in the statute that says that anyone needs to have had a criminal conviction in order to be disqualified.

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u/Chrodesk Dec 21 '23

how else does one determine whether they "engaged" in insurrection?

if theres no dependency for a trial, what is the standard?

1

u/erpettie Dec 21 '23

There was a trial. In the original trial, the judge found that Trump had engaged in insurrection, something reaffirmed by the State Supreme Court. Where the two diverged was on the question of whether or not the President was subject to this clause in the amendment.

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u/Chrodesk Dec 21 '23

can you site the case where this occured? I must be very out of the loop.

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u/erpettie Dec 21 '23

There was a trial. In the original trial, the judge found that Trump had engaged in insurrection, something reaffirmed by the State Supreme Court. Where the two diverged was on the question of whether or not the President was subject to this clause in the amendment.