CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig and conservative, anti-Trump lawyer George Conway clashed Wednesday in a heated debate about whether the 14th Amendment disqualifies Donald Trump from becoming president again. During the Wednesday night CNN appearance, Conway explained why he changed his mind and now believes Trump is ineligible for office. "All the arguments that I have seen against disqualification are bogus, like the one which my friend, Elie, just mentioned," Conway began before railing against the opposing arguments.
He criticized Honig's suggestion that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment can only be enforced through an act of Congress, arguing that the claim is "just not true" because it's not upheld by any language in Section 3 or any other provisions of the 14th Amendment. Honig, however, pushed back, pointing to Section 5 of the amendment, which authorizes Congress to pass legislation to enforce the amendment's provisions. "So has Congress done that? No. It doesn’t say Congress shall have the power, or states can if they feel like it," Honig said before Conway interrupted. "That’s nonsense. Elie, that’s just complete nonsense,” he fired back.
"You don’t need Congress to tell you to follow the Constitution no more than you need Congress to tell you to follow Section 1’s prohibition in the 14th Amendment that says that you can’t put Black kids in a different school,” Conway continued. Honig replied that he's not "following that analogy whatsoever" before Conway snapped that he didn't know what Honig was talking about. The conversation devolved as the legal experts spoke over each other about what Section 5 means. As the exchange continued, Conway mistakenly referred to Honig as "Elliot" and Honig accused Conway of "filibustering" and engaging in "pretzel logic." Conway replied, “Elie, you’re just not making any sense.”
