GOP Lawmaker Flat-Out Refuses To Condemn Trump's Call To Terminate Constitution

Despite a relentless grilling on ABC’s “This Week,” Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) on Sunday refused to condemn Donald Trump’s jaw-dropping demand to terminate the Constitution and anoint him as president.

Trump was so incensed over new information that Twitter aimed to moderate misinformation about Hunter Biden’s laptop — and insisted it somehow made the 2020 election fraudulent — that he demanded the bedrock document of American rights and laws be tossed out, and make him president again, or hold a new election.

Yet Joyce, who is chair of the Republican Governance Group, did everything he could to dodge criticizing Trump’s statement — and even vowed to support him if Trump becomes the GOP nominee for president.

Joyce bizarrely insisted Trump’s statement needs to be taken in “context” (though failed to explain what that might be) and that Trump “says a lot of things.”

Joyce also insisted he “can’t be chasing every one of these crazy statements” and that terminating the Constitution is “fantasy,” not a reality. In fact, a president can unilaterally declare a “national emergency,” vastly expanding his powers, including over Constitutional rights. That’s exactly what critics feared Trump would do during the Jan. 6 insurrection last year.

“This Week” host George Stephanopoulos didn’t let Joyce off the hook. He repeatedly and bluntly asked him if and how he could support a presidential candidate who called for terminating the Constitution.

It’s “an extraordinary statement,” Stephanopoulos said at one point. “You can’t come out against someone who supports suspending the Constitution?”

Joyce could not.

While Democrats lashed Trump’s call to kill the Constitution, only a handful of Republicans, including Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and House Intelligence chair Rep. Mike Turner (Ohio), slammed back.

Trump’s demand was “certainly not consistent with the Oath we all take,” Turner said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “I vehemently disagree with the statement that Trump has made,” he added.

Critics on Twitter were dumbfounded.