Democrats like Rep. Jamie Raskin have threatened to use the powers of Congress to keep Donald Trump out of the White House if he wins the 2024 Election. But is it even possible to disqualify him? “MoneyGPT” author James Rickards joins Glenn to explain how this could be done if Trump is declared an insurrectionist and why January 6th, 2025 might be a historic day. Plus, he explains why he believes Americans should prepare for the possibility of an “Acting President JD Vance” …
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Jim Rickards, he is the Money GPT author, Strategic Intelligence editor.
He is a guy who historically has been calling all the big ones. All the big disruptions in our society in our economy.
And, Jim, I don't think -- I mean, I've heard you be pessimistic.
I don't think I've heard a more stern warning than the one you're giving right now.
JIM: Well, thanks, Glenn. It's great to be with you. Yeah. I don't think of myself as a pessimist. I'm an analyst.
And I just tried to be realistic. That's kind of bad news. So be it. I try -- and I have a lot of readers and followers. And so forth.
And listeners on our show today.
And I just try to get it right. And I'm looking at the election. Of course, everyone is.
You know, come November 5th, I remind people, the election is pretty much over already, with the early voting and all that. So we know that.
The drop boxes and the mail-ins. So people understand that. But we'll get to November 5th.
I don't think we'll know on November 5th, or even that night or early the next day. You have the usual trouble spots. Philadelphia, Maricopa County. I don't know what's going on there.
But they seemed to ship the ballots off to the warehouse. But beyond that, most Americans are not familiar with the actual electoral calendar, so to speak. And it was devised in the late 18th century. People were like, well, why does it take from November 5th to January 6th, 2025, to figure things out?
Well, you know, back in the 18th century, they got around by horses and carriages and all that. It just took time. But anyway, when you get past that, let's say Trump wins. That's not a short thing. It will be a close election.
But my -- my models show Trump winning. So he gets more than 270 electoral votes. So we come up to December 17th, when they actually count those votes in the state capitols. And there will be disputes and litigation. Let's say we make it. I'm just kind of looking ahead, as far as we can. To January 26, 2025. Everyone is spun up about January 6th, 2021. We know what happened.
But this is January 6th, 2025. Those electoral votes go to the House and the Senate. Now, here's the key. And this is why Trump's campaign in places like New York and California. He's not going to win New York and California. But they're fighting over House seats. Is if the Democrats take the majority of the House of Representatives, which is possible. There are only a four or five-vote difference right now.
Led by Jamie Raskin. They're going to pass a resolution, saying Trump is an insurrectionist under Section 3 of the 14th amendment.
Now, a lot of people say, now, a lot of people say, wait a second. Didn't the Supreme Court throw that out?
Not exactly. Colorado and Maine tried to kick Trump off the ballot on that grounds. It went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court said, states cannot do it.
They couldn't do it. Nor could any other state. They explicitly said, there's a federal issue, exactly.
So now you passed this resolution. What happens?
Trump's votes would be disqualified. Let's say he has 300 electoral votes.
And pick a number over 270. Those are disqualified on the grounds of he's an insurrectionist. So then what happens next? Well, now, nobody has 270.
Because in this scenario, Kamala Harris doesn't get 270. Trump does. But he's disqualified.
So now the election goes to the House of Representatives.
This, by the way, is happening before 1800s. 1824, and then 1876. We still can't figure out what happened.
But it has happened before, so but now you flip over for the 14th Amendment, to the 12th Amendment.
I happen to be a lawyer. So enough of a geek to able to read all this stuff. Now you're at the 12th Amendment of 1804. And what does that say?
Well, the House votes could choose the president. There's a couple of caveats. One is they could only vote, someone who got in the top three electoral votes. This is, you know, back in the day.
So maybe three or four people get electoral votes in 1968.
George Wallace got electoral votes in 1968. Top three. But there's only going to be one. If you disqualify Trump, no one else is going to win a state. And Kamala Harris is the only one you could vote for. Because top three. But she would be the top one. Because that's it.
GLENN: Why wouldn't it go to J.D. Vance? Why doesn't he take those?
JIM: Well, I think that's what's going to happen. But you have to sort of follow. The 12th Amendment is a playbook. That's where it will end up. I agree with that. But you have to kind of look at the sequence.
Now, in the House. Here's the interesting part: There are four to five members. But you don't vote by member, you vote by state delegation. So Texas would get one vote. I live in New Hampshire. We would get one vote, the same as Texas. The Republicans control a majority of the state delegations by a bigger margin. They barely control a majority of the House. But when you go by state delegations, it's more like 20, 22.
The Republicans have a substantial majority. But the problem is, you can only rote for Kamala Harris, no matter what. Because nobody else has any electoral votes.
The answer then, 12th Amendment says this, it's for the Republicans that they have the big cajones to go out and stand out on the mall, in the snow.
And then the House will ask it for them, and the 12th Amendment says, you can't do anything what we're talking about, if you don't have a quorum.
If you lack a quorum, then what happens? The 12th Amendment says, the vice president becomes the acting president.
Now, J.D. Vance would not suffer this disqualification, going back to the insurrection.
So J.D. Vance would go become the acting president of the United States. If the House acted for him. And I described this, Glenn. It's all in the 12th Amendment. It's in the 14th Amendment, it's been litigated years past.
It sounds crazy. But just think what we've been through the last months.
You know, two, maybe three assassination attempts.
A coup d'etat on Joe Biden. A nominee who didn't get one vote in two tribes.
Not one vote, in the primary. So there's enough craziness to go around. So, again, I'm just reading the Constitution and applying it. It's happened before. And as in the 1800s, we ended up with Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, who were bitter enemies and opposing parties. But that's what happened.
And here you could have Kamala, J.D. Vance, worst case. Or J.D. Vance is acting as president. If the Republicans walk off the floor, and they lack a quorum.
GLENN: Jeez. This is craziness! You know, one of the reasons we were successful. We had cheap energy. Don't have that anymore. Well-educated populace, we don't really have that anymore. Cheap labor, we don't have that anymore.
And a stable country. If this happens, what happens to the economy?
JIM: Well, the stock market, you know, it can -- there are bull markets and bear markets.
It goes up and down.
The one thing the stock market hates is uncertainty.
What we just described is maximum uncertainty. I give gave you a scenario. Just laid out in the 12th Amendment, 1804. But you can bet that every step that I described, will be litigated in some manner.
So -- and -- and the courts want nothing to do with this. And when you go back to 2020, you know, the New York Times and all these people say, well, there were 15 cases.
And all of them were decided that there was no voter interference. That's not what the court said. The courts dismissed all those cases.
Either on standing, jurisdiction, timeliness. They went to all these procedural things, to get rid of the cases. But the actual fraud was never litigated. They're doing a lot of the forensic analysis since then. And that's just the question that, hey. You, Congress. State -- state legislatures.
You have to figure it out. You don't want to be involved in this. They still feel burned by Bush versus Gore in 2000. Having said that, they have a job to do. And I think these things will end up in their laps.
If you put the courts to one side, and just go by the playbook on the 12th Amendment. Now, this is all what happened in the 1800s, you would have ended up J.D. Vance as acting president.
GLENN: And because the Congress can say, that he's an insurrectionist. You don't need a trial?
I mean, he's never been charged with insurrection.
JIM: Of course. You're right. And I agree completely. But the 13th amendment -- sorry, Section three of the 14th amendment. Hasn't been litigated since -- well, we had the case last summer.
Colorado and Maine.
Before that, you have to go back to the 1930s.
And even -- of course, that was designed.
That came after the Civil War of 1968. It was designed to disqualify confederates and federal officers, et cetera. Over the years.
Section five, section three is the insurrectionist clause. But section five, powers to Congress to make laws, to interpret section three.
They sometimes -- I don't know the exact date, sometime in the 1920s.
Congress granted full amnesty to Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. They said, they were not insurrectionists. So there has been legislation. It's been litigated in recent decades.
If you're willing to cut Robert E. Lee a break. I don't know why they wouldn't do it for Trump.
GLENN: Well, they did that. They did that to heal. That's why we have these statues of Robert E. Lee. The north said, build a statue. These are heroes for you as well.
They didn't prosecute these guys, because they said, we have to come back together, as a nation.
Nobody is going to do that, this time.
JIM: That's exactly right.
The bitterness is where -- sorry to say that. It's there.
By the way, the leader of this. He's open about it. And kind of the Constitution. The legal homework.
The guys said, this is what we're going to do, is Jamie Raskin. Another congressman in Maryland. Most people, they're worried about election fraud on November 5th.
They should be. I think Lara Trump has done a good job. I think they mobilized 500 lawyers. They're on that. Republicans are finally waking up to the fact, that you may not like it, but you have to do it.
But this is much further down the road. This is the endgame. This is the final lawfare attack.