Washington Post column calls on Congress to use the 14th Amendment to prevent Trump from running again in 2024

Former President Donald Trump greets supporters during his Save America rally in Perry, Ga., on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

The Washington Post published an op-ed Thursday calling on Congress to bar former President Donald J. Trump from running for re-election in 2024. The article, written by NBC News election law analyst Edward B. Foley, argued that Congress should weaponize Section 3 of the 14th Amendment against Trump to prevent the presumptive GOP frontrunner from running again. 

"If the goal of prosecuting former president Donald Trump is to protect American democracy from a Trump comeback in 2024, there is a better way to go about it than filing criminal charges," Foley wrote. 

"Instead, Congress should exercise its constitutional authority to prohibit Trump from seeking the presidency again," he continued. 

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FILE - In this March 2, 2020 file photo, President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike McCarn)

Section 3 of the 14th amendment empowers Congress and the DOJ to bar people who have "engaged in insurrection" to be prevented from running for office. 

Some, including attorney Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, argue that January 6th was not an insurrection. Trump told the protesters, "I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard." The January 6 Committee cut out the "peacefully and patriotically" line in video of Trump's speech during its first public hearing earlier this month.

Foley wrote that "Section 3 of the 14th Amendment sets out the procedure. It provides that ‘no person’ shall hold federal office who, ‘having previously taken an oath’ as a federal officer ‘to support the Constitution of the United States,’ has ‘engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.’"

While Foley contends that Trump’s protesting of the election results was criminal, he celebrates that using the 14th Amendment "would avoid all the extra burdens of a criminal trial, including proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

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President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Tucson International Airport, Monday, Oct. 19, 2020, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

"Moreover, safeguarding the 2024 election from the kind of subversion that Trump attempted in 2020 does not require putting him in prison for his past criminality. Instead, what is necessary is to disable him from being a candidate again," he argued. 

Foley concluded by arguing that if Trump is not barred from seeking the presidency in 2024, "the Republic is truly in trouble." 

Several, such as Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, have criticized the apparent double standard between the media coverage and aggressive prosecution of Jan 6 rioters and the BLM and ANTIFA rioters over summer 2020. Del Rio was fined $100,000 for his comments. 

As noted by New York Post columnist Miranda Devine, "The 2020 BLM riots injured or blinded more than 2,000 police officers, resulted in the deaths of more than two dozen people and property damage worth more than $1 billion, the most expensive in insurance history." 

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, June 12, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Devine continued, "[A]s RealClearInvestigations has found, the 2020 BLM riots resulted in ‘15 times more injured police officers, 30 times as many arrests, and estimated damages in dollar terms up to 1,300 times more costly than those of the Capitol riot.’"

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Trump is expected to announce whether he will run for President after the 2022 midterms.