Will Kamala commit to certifying a Trump win?

For the past four years, the topic of who won the 2020 presidential election has been a central part of our national news cycle. It has been a favorite debate question — and several outlets, including the New York Times and CNN, continue to bludgeon Republicans over it. J.D. Vance’s elusiveness on the topic has not helped his party or his ticket — and the media will keep using the line against Republicans up until Election Day.

But the national media is also engaged in a severe case of collective amnesia. When Trump soundly defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016, several Democrats protested his electoral certification. Hollywood celebrities banded together to create ads and sad videos begging for faithless electors to nominate anyone but Donald Trump. The majority of the party, led by Hillary Clinton, then spent four years telling any media outlet that would listen that Trump was not a legitimate president — and in 2020 even advised Joe Biden not to concede under any circumstances, should Trump also win that election.

Now we find ourselves in a unique situation in 2024, as several close allies of Kamala Harris are signaling that should Trump capture the Electoral College, they will not certify his win this time around, citing everything from his criminal cases against him, to an invocation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Kamala Harris, as the sitting vice president of the United States, must answer if she will certify a Trump victory, despite the calls against doing so coming from those close to her campaign.

Liz Cheney, who led the charge on the January 6 Committee, has said that Trump is disqualified from holding office again, despite having not being charged or convicted of any crime, such as sedition. Cheney has appeared with Harris on the campaign trail and is being considered for a cabinet position, according to Harris herself. The former congresswoman is working with the campaign on moderating Harris’s message and advising her on foreign policy, which includes the US supporting Ukraine.

One Cheney ally on the House January 6 Committee was Representative Jamie Raskin, who also stood in protest of the 2016 electoral results. Raskin is on record saying that even if Trump wins the Electoral College, that Congress will simply refuse to seat him, invoking the Fourteenth Amendment. Raskin has also endorsed Kamala Harris’s campaign and several of her polices. Raskin said in December of last year that Trump is ineligible to hold office again and is on video confirming his support for this as well.

Lawfare activist groups around the country have filed legal challenges to keep Trump off ballots altogether, with a Colorado Supreme Court decision having to be overturned. Kamala Harris has hired heavyweight Democrat lawyer Marc Elias to her election legal team. He was one of the sponsors of many of the groups that attempted to keep Trump off ballots. When those tactics failed, Raskin told Axios, “Congress will have to try and act.”

All of these moves seem to foreshadow several legal and political challenges to a Trump victory — and it will ultimately be up to Harris to rebuff them and carry out her constitutional duty of certifying a Trump victory. These comments from Harris allies, however, and the moves her own campaign is making are casting doubt on that process — and the country deserves a definitive answer before November 5.

Should Trump win the election, we are sure to see a push from the Democratic Party and its allies in the media not to seat Donald Trump for a second and final term, invoking the insurrection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This would cause a constitutional crisis the likes of which the country has never seen and would likely involve the Supreme Court, which the media and Democrats have targeted repeatedly in the past.

If Trump represents the unique threat to democracy the left continues to claim, and if they truly believe he is another Hitler in waiting, a dictator from day one, to what lengths would they go to keep him out of office?
 

Harris must answer if she will ignore the crowing of her colleagues and fulfill her duty. For now, though, we don’t know where Kamala Harris stands on this critical question.