Honestly it was inevitable once the Colorado Supreme Court went and ruled that Donald Trump can't be on the ballot in their state that other states would take notice and attempt to follow suit. And, unsurprisingly, it was California that jumped in toot suite, with its state government likely kicking itself for having been beaten to the punch at this particularly attempted thumb in the eye to the campaign of the former President.
California Lt. Gov. @EleniForCA writes to Secretary of State Shirley Weber to “explore every legal option to remove former President Donald Trump from California’s 2024 presidential primary ballot.”
— Christopher Cadelago (@ccadelago) December 20, 2023
Letter here: pic.twitter.com/HoGZdjLmNy
Lt. Governor Elani Kounalakis isn't even subtle in what she wants to happen here and why, referencing the Colorado decision before launching into the usual lefty boilerplate diatribe about 'being on the right side of history' and how the stakes are 'the sanctity of our constitution and democracy'. Please.
For such an expert on the US Constitution Kounalakis certainly seems to not understand some pretty basic elements of it, as Commentary Magazine's editor John Podhoretz was quick to point out:
The Lieutenant Governor of the largest state in the country says that according to the Constitution, the president must be 40 years old. Her name is Eleni Kounalakis and appar,ently no one ever taught her how to read. https://t.co/ebhSVEqDaI
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) December 20, 2023
Yeah... that's a pretty glaring oversight. As noted over at USA.gov, the requirement to be President are:
Be a natural-born citizen of the United States, be at least 35 years old, have been a resident of the United States for 14 years
A fact that will doubtless not surprise you, since you probably paid a bit more attention in civics class than Lt. Governor Kounalakis did. But not to worry, about an hour later her office apparently dropped a corrected letter.
Updated letter from LG that corrects age requirement error in original. pic.twitter.com/B3rYOVEdxv
— Christopher Cadelago (@ccadelago) December 20, 2023
If at first you don't succeed, right? California government officials never cease to impress.
Come on, if you're going to support a nonsense legal challenge, at least get the basic & explicit constitutional parts right before hitting send to the press list. https://t.co/OnPraY2KnS
— Lance Christensen (@lancelands) December 20, 2023
Eleni Kounalakis is not a constitutional lawyer. In fact, she's not a lawyer at all but she does have an MBA from
— Corey Uhden (@CACoreyU) December 20, 2023
...UC Berkeley.
🤡 https://t.co/omo0Yq3Mf2
The finest that UC Berkeley has to offer right there.
When she doesn’t even know you need to be thirty-five, not forty...
— D.E. (@tkdylan) December 20, 2023
She didn't even get the 35-years old age requirement right.
— cryptofreeze (@FreezeMatthew) December 20, 2023
Head -> Desk
— MarbleRabbit (@rabbit_marble) December 20, 2023
Do these people think before putting this crap out there?
Is it too much to ask that we get the basic freaking facts correct? pic.twitter.com/uaOvQ7jiOL
No they don't, and apparently yes it is. But points for getting it right eventually ma'am!
If you're wondering why she's so hep to get herself noticed on this issue wonder no longer, by the way:
Surprise! She's already announced she's running for Governor of CA in 2026.https://t.co/Bk5OCyjgcx
— Lady Lisa ♥️🇺🇸♥️ (@SumSol44) December 20, 2023
Because of course she is. Seeing as it's California she's probably a shoo-in too, they've never seemed overly interested in their politicians following the Constitution so not understanding the basic tenets of the thing shouldn't be too much of an issue. She can just make it up as she goes, right?
Of course the age thing isn't the only issue here, the whole exercise itself is extremely troubling.
This is getting into very dangerous territory. If you think that these tactics, once established and tolerated, are going to only be used against Trump, you're delusional. https://t.co/k5txiIdrEk
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) December 20, 2023
It's not a master plan so much as it is a typical Democrat playbook....sow division and uncertainty amongst your enemies. California's goal is to suppress GOP turnout w/in the state and push other D-run states like Michigan and Pennsylvania to follow suit. https://t.co/6RaHtaDOB7
— Chris (@chriswithans) December 20, 2023
And this is another reason why national popular vote should never decide a Presidential election. https://t.co/O0v3C6I8qd
— Kostas Moros (@MorosKostas) December 20, 2023
Indeed it is. If you want the entirety of our governance being decided almost exclusively by residents of California and New York City with a little bit of input from the other Democratic run urban areas, by all means do away with the electoral college and let us be ruled by the 'tyranny of the majority'.
This is such an epic faceplant on so many levels it's truly a sight to behold. Democrats seem to be completely incapable of looking even a year or two into the future at what the logical end result of their actions on these sorts of matters will be. We have to assume that they feel so secure in their complete dominance of academia and the media that they think that if the Republicans try to pull the same stunts against them they'll be able to shut it down using these levers of power, but those levers aren't quite as powerful as they once were. What they're doing is deepening divisions in the American electorate and, in a way, actively helping Donald Trump to make the case that 'they're out to get him' by constantly being entirely open in their efforts to get him. It's incredibly bad for everyone involved, but they seem to be so entirely entrapped by their own Trump Derangement Syndrome that they can't see it... which needless to say is not a good place to be. Like it or not if we're ever going to come back to any semblance of working order in this country we'll need to find a way for the two parties to trust each other enough to work together, but every time these partisan hacks pull a stunt like this it becomes harder and harder to see how that ever happens.
Not to be too gloomy or anything.
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