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Trump Didn't Put His Hand on the Bible While Taking the Oath of Office (And It's Legally Irrelevant)

Chip Somodevilla/Pool Photo via AP

As you surely know, Trump was sworn in as president, again, at close to noon today. Here’s video of that moment:

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Ah … it feels so good. As someone said in the live chat, it’s the end of the Reign of Error.

But as this poster noted, there was one minor snafu. Because Roberts started before everyone was ready, Trump ended up not placing his hand on the Bible.

This was in contrast with his first swearing in, which you can see here:

Of course, Jonathan Turley was quick to give his analysis and to call back to another time Chief Justice Roberts flubbed things with the oath of office:

In the strictest sense, Turley is right: Legally speaking, a do over is not necessary. This is what the Constitution says about the oath of office:

Before [the President] enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--‘I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’

Thus, you might notice that this says nothing about swearing on a Bible at all. Furthermore, the final words that Trump and Roberts said, ‘so help me God,’ is not in the oath, probably because the founders were open to the thought that an atheist might someday be president. Article VI specifically says that 

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no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

The other thing to note is that this oath isn’t technically required at all. Why? Because he already took the oath. The literal language of the Constitution doesn’t say that he must swear the oath before each term, only that he swear the oath sometime before he actually starts to be president—and that sometime could theoretically have been January 20, 2017 when he did it the first time.

Still, this conservative makes a decent point:

When Roberts flubbed Obama’s oath of office, Roberts came to White House and did the oath again, just to clear up any doubt. While we agree with Turley that there is no legal need to do so, we think its probably a good idea to have Trump do it again, hand on the bible, with Chief Justice Roberts, and post it on video, just to shut the crazies up.

On to reactions:

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Remember kids, always eat your Oats of Office!

Right?!

For the record, the Constitution doesn’t say it has to be administered by the Chief Justice.

Yes, and we are already seeing conspiracy theories:

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Sorry, what?

Seriously, why does our state media care?

Finally:

The last four seasons of the presidency were pretty terrible, and much like when Bo and Luke Duke were briefly replaced with Coy and Vance Duke during season 5 of the Dukes of Hazzard, America decided to bring a previous cast member back when ratings tanked. Hopefully, America will recover better than the TV show.

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