Prof. ST Hsieh
Director, US-China Energy Industry Forum
626-376-7460
January 5, 2024
Tomorrow will be the third anniversary of the attack on the US capital, which was broadcasted via live-TV all over the world. It sent shock waves to the world, people were asking what happened to the US, the model democracy? Were these people driven by ideology or just unhappy about Trump’s loss to Biden? How will the US settle the scores via the legal system so that the tragedy will never happen again?
Three years later, however, the scores are not settled yet. News headlines still carry very different tones: attacks, riots, and insurrections all have been used by the media to discuss the event. The legal proceedings are continuing, we have to be patient!
But the US political calendar is forcing the government to address some imminent issues. The US supreme court will issue a verdict in February on Trump’s eligibility as a candidate for the 2024 general election. It is not difficult for the Court to allow Trump to campaign during the general election, because election should be decided by the voters.
The difficult case for the Court would be to validate the result of the election result after the voting on November 5, 2024. One possible outcome is Trump wins at the ballot boxes for a second term, but he might be convicted by lower courts for any of his 91 convicted cases, then the Democrat will challenge Trump’s credential for the second term via the US courts.
It is also likely that Biden wins his reelection bid, then Trump could repeat his 2021 act with more vengeance on January 6, 2025, the fourth anniversary. How would the US move forward in governing?
It is not very pleasant to speculate the future…
Hundreds of convictions, but a major mystery is still unsolved 3 years after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot
The nation remembers the Jan. 6 insurrection
Supreme Court to decide if Trump can be kept off 2024 election ballots, hearings set for February
Published: Jan. 5, 2024 at 5:21 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Friday it will decide whether former President Donald Trump can be kept off the ballot because of his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, inserting the court squarely in the 2024 presidential campaign.
The justices acknowledged the need to reach a decision quickly, as voters will soon begin casting presidential-primary ballots across the country. The court agreed to take up a case from Colorado stemming from Trump’s role in the events that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Colorado’s Supreme Court, by a 4-3 vote, ruled last month that Trump should not be on the Republican primary ballot. The decision was the first time the 14th Amendment was used to bar a presidential contender from the ballot.
Trump is separately appealing to state court a ruling by Maine’s Democratic secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, that he was ineligible to appear on that state’s ballot over his role in the Capitol attack. Both the Colorado Supreme Court and the Maine secretary of state’s rulings are on hold until the appeals play out.
Trump had asked the court to overturn the Colorado ruling without even hearing arguments. “The Colorado Supreme Court decision would unconstitutionally disenfranchise millions of voters in Colorado and likely be used as a template to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters nationwide,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
They argue that Trump should win on many grounds, including that the events of Jan. 6 did not constitute an insurrection. Even if it did, they wrote, Trump himself had not engaged in insurrection. They also contend that the insurrection clause does not apply to the president and that Congress must act, not individual states.
Trump fires back at Jan. 6 criticism, says Biden is a ‘true threat to democracy’
Brooke Singman, Fox News
Fri, January 5, 2024 at 1:32 PM PST
“The Democrats rigged the last election and they are trying it again,” Trump said. “But it won’t work because they have shown how bad and incompetent they are.”
Trump went on to tell Fox News Digital that “because of his gross incompetence, Joe Biden is a true threat to democracy.”
“This is not a time for us to have a mentally challenged president,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments come as Biden blasted him for “the worst dereliction of duty by a president in American history” and “an attempt to overturn a free and fair election by force and violence.”