Fox News political analyst Juan Williams said in a Monday op-ed that former President Donald Trump should be barred from running for president in 2024 due to his claims that there was election fraud in 2020.
Williams cited former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who wrote in The Guardian that Attorney General Merrick Garland could stop Trump from running again due to section three of the 14th amendment. That section prohibits anyone who “engaged in insurrection” against the U.S. from holding office.
“If Garland takes Reich’s advice, he is sure to set off alarms about the attorney general playing politics,” Williams wrote in The Hill. “But Garland has the facts on his side. The facts say Trump tried to stage a coup.”
Juan Williams: Trump’s coup attempt should bar him from 2024 race https://t.co/8Vy3YYMhEX pic.twitter.com/0kHDabUSmW
— The Hill (@thehill) August 16, 2021
The Fox News analyst said that Trump pressured his attorney general, William Barr, to investigate voter fraud and overturn the election. He later asked acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen to label the election as “corrupt,” Williams wrote. (RELATED: Hill Reporters Mocked After Describing ‘Trauma’ Caused By Jan. 6 Riot)
Williams also claimed that Trump instructed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger to “find” enough votes to make him the winner in Georgia. Williams cited a now-debunked Washington Post article that had to be corrected to support his claims.
“Trump did not tell the investigator to ‘find the fraud’ or say she would be ‘a national hero’ if she did so,” the Washington Post’s correction read. “Instead, Trump urged the investigator to scrutinize ballots in Fulton County, Ga., asserting she would find ‘dishonesty’ there.”
“The whitewashing of the Jan. 6 riots is an ongoing conspiracy to downplay violent disruption of the U.S. government,” Williams wrote. “So, yes, there is a case to be made that Trump committed crimes against America.”