This Is What Desperation Looks Like

On Sunday, The Epoch Times reported that Indiana Democrats have attempted to disqualify Representative Jim Banks (R-Ind.) from running in the November general election. The attempt was made because Representative Banks contested the 2020 election results. There have been similar attempts to disqualify other Republican candidates in other states. Thankfully, the bipartisan Indiana Election Commission dismissed the challenge to Representative Banks.

The article reports:

Aaron “A.J.” Calkins of Fort Wayne, Indiana, who’s running in a three-way Democratic Party primary for the right to face third-term U.S. Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) in the November general election, filed a formal challenge on Feb. 10. Calkins claimed in the filing that Banks was guilty of a “violation of the 14th Amendment supporting an insurrection.”

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states: “No person shall be a … Representative in Congress … who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”

This so-called disqualification clause that’s part of the 14th Amendment is a post-Civil War measure that, among other things, was aimed at keeping individuals who fought for the defeated Confederacy out of Congress. The amendment was ratified on July 9, 1868, a little more than three years after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia surrendered.

The clause was “meant for Confederate officers who actually took up arms against the United States,” J. Christian Adams, president of the Indianapolis-based Public Interest Legal Foundation, recently told The Epoch Times.

The novel theory that someone can be tossed from the ballot for something that falls short of an actual insurrection comes from attorney Marc Elias, who has a long history of successfully challenging election integrity laws in court. He laid out a blueprint for using the 14th Amendment to disqualify Republicans in a Dec. 20, 2021, Twitter post.

“My prediction for 2022: Before the midterm election, we will have a serious discussion about whether individual Republican House Members are disqualified by Section 3 of the 14th Amendment from serving in Congress,” he wrote. “We may even see litigation.”

We have heard the name Marc Elias before. He was a central figure in the ‘RussiaGate’ conspiracy. He was the man who hired Fusion GPS for the Clinton presidential campaign of 2016.

The article concludes:

Before the commission voted to reject the challenge, its chairman, Paul Okeson, said the events of Jan. 6, 2021, were “a regrettable mark in history,” but he knew of no evidence that Banks was guilty of participating in an insurrection.

After the hearing, Banks claimed vindication.

“Many Democrats in Washington hope to weaponize the 14th Amendment to disenfranchise President Trump’s 74 million voters,” Banks said in a statement. “I hope they watched today’s unanimous decision.”

Expect more of these attempts to disqualify Republican candidates as we get closer to the mid-term elections. The Democrat Party is doing anything and everything it can to hold on to power. They do not want to fact the consequences of the Republicans taking charge and actually investigating some of the recent escapades of the Democrat Party.