Republican Representative David Joyce refused to denounce outright Donald Trump’s shocking call to “terminate” the Constitution despite being repeatedly grilled by a talk show host.
In his appearance on ABC’s This Week with anchor George Stephanopoulos, the Ohio representative appeared to dodge questions when pressed on Mr Trump’s latest statement. He went on to say that he would support him should he become the 2024 presidential nominee.
“He [Mr Trump] says a lot of things,” Mr Joyce, the chair of the Republican Governance Group, insisted.
He said the former president’s statements need to be taken in “context” and he cannot chase “every one of these crazy statements that come out about” from the candidates.
The host continued to press him on the bizarre suggestion by the former president and asked him in an incredulous tone if he could support a presidential candidate who called for the termination of the constitution.
“I will support whoever the Republican nominee is. And I just don’t think at this point he will be able to get there, because I think there’s a lot of other good-quality candidates out there,” Mr Joyce responded.
Stephanopoulos interjected that it is “an extraordinary statement” by a former president, and more directly asked, “you can’t come out against someone who supports suspending the constitution?”
“He says a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean that it’s ever going to happen,” Mr Joyce responded.
“So you got to accept fact from fantasy, and fantasy is that we’re going to suspend the constitution and go backwards,” he continued. “We’re moving forward, and we’re going to continue to move forward as a Republican majority and as a Republican conference.”
It comes a day after Mr Trump was denounced by officials from the Democratic party and some Republican members after he called for the “termination” of parts of the constitution over his lie that the 2020 election was stolen.
“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the constitution,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”
Republicans, including Liz Cheney, and House Intelligence chair representative Mike Turner (Ohio), have slammed Mr Trump for his latest remarks.
Calling him an enemy of the constitution, Ms Cheney said: “Donald Trump believes we should terminate ‘all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution’ to overturn the 2020 election.”
“That was his view on 1/6 and remains his view today. No honest person can now deny that Trump is an enemy of the constitution.”
The former president’s demand was “certainly not consistent with the Oath we all take,” Mr Turner said on CBS’s “Face the Nation”.
“I vehemently disagree with the statement that Trump has made,” he added.
Representative Adam Kinzinger who is a member of the Republican Governance Group also slammed Mr Trump’s “insane” comments.
“With the former President calling to throw aside the constitution, not a single conservative can legitimately support him, and not a single supporter can be called a conservative. This is insane. Trump hates the constitution,” he wrote on Twitter.
