Election officials should refuse to put Trump on 2024 ballot over 'treason,' Clinton labor secretary claims

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Former Democratic Labor Secretary Robert Reich called for secretaries of state to refuse to place former President Trump's name on the ballot in 2024, accusing the former president of "treason." 

"The most obvious question in American politics today should be: why is the guy who committed treason just over two years ago allowed to run for president?" Reich wrote in an op-ed for The Guardian published Monday. "Answer: he shouldn’t be."

Reich, who served as labor secretary under former President Clinton, argued that Trump is guilty of treason and violated the Constitution through his actions challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election. Reich accused Trump of participating in an "insurrection against the United States" — referring to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — and wrote the 14th Amendment to the Constitution prohibits "anyone who has held public office and who has engaged in insurrection against the United States from ever again serving in public office." 

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Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich testifies before the Joint Economic Committee, Jan. 16, 2014, in Washington, D.C. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

"Secretaries of state – who in most cases are in charge of deciding who gets on the ballot – must refuse to place Donald Trump’s name on the 2024 ballot, based on the clear meaning of section three of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution," Reich urged. 

His argument is similar to one made by House Democrats, who introduced legislation last year that sought to bar Trump from office under the 14th Amendment. 

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Donald Trump supporters occupy the West Front of the Capitol and the inauguration stands on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The amendment states, "No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States … who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof." 

Democrats argue that this language – adopted in the 1860s to prevent former Confederates from occupying positions in the federal government after the Civil War – should be applied to Trump, who they allege incited an insurrection against the United States on Jan. 6, 2021. 

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Former President Trump announced his third campaign for the White House in November 2022. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

"Can any of us who saw (or have learned through the painstaking work of the January 6 committee) what Trump tried to do to overturn the results of the 2020 election have any doubt he will once again try to do whatever necessary to regain power, even if illegal and unconstitutional?" Reich asked. 

He floated several conspiratorial scenarios in which Trump-loyalist secretaries of state and governors "alter the election machinery" to help Trump win, or who object to slates of electors pledged to BIden in the event the president wins re-election next year. 

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"Does anyone doubt the possibility – no, the probability – of any or all of this happening?" wrote Reich.

"Trump tried these tactics once. The likelihood of him trying again is greater now because his loyalists are now in much stronger positions throughout state and federal government," he continued.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said Reich and others calling for Trump to be kept off the ballot are "un-democratic." 

"What these un-democratic organizations and individuals are doing is blatant election interference and tampering. They are not even trying to hide it anymore, and it is sad they want to deprive the American people of choosing Donald Trump — the overwhelming front-runner by far — as their President," Cheung told Fox News Digital. "History will not judge them kindly, and they will have to answer for their desecration of the Constitution."