WATCH: Stephanopoulos Corners Nancy Pelosi, Busts Her After She Botches a Key Fact On Trump Ballot Eligibility
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos had Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on the run, Sunday — prompting the former House Speaker to botch a key fact surrounding the ballot eligibility of former President Donald Trump.
In an interview on ABC’s This Week, Stephanopoulos deftly pinned Pelosi by asking her “Do you believe that Donald Trump engaged in insurrection?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I think that he engaged in insurrection. I think that he incited an insurrection. And again, that he would not stop what was going on. As his own people said, ‘This is your legacy. Smoke coming from the Capitol is your legacy.’ Yes, I do believe that.”
Stephanopoulos proceeded to ask the logical follow-up.
“Madam Speaker, if you believe he engaged in insurrection under the plain meaning of the 14th amendment, you believe he’s ineligible to be president?” Stephanopoulos said — referring to the recent decisions to bar Trump from the ballot in Colorado and Maine.
That question led to Pelosi butchering a key fact.
“Those are up to the states. They have different laws from state to state,” Pelosi incorrectly said.
While states may have different interpretations of the law, the law they are all interpreting is the same — section 3 of the 14th Amendment — which says “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, 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.”
Stephanopoulos immediately fact-checked Pelosi.
“It’s the Constitution,” he said.
Pelosi began to waffle and did not answer the ABC anchor’s original question about whether she believes Trump is ineligible to be President.
“There is a view of the Constitution in article 14, section 3, that he should not be able to run for president,” she said. “But that’s not the point. The point now is, again, different states have different laws. We don’t think in California that it it applied in our state. That’s what the decision was made here.”
After the interview, Stephanopoulos moderated a panel discussion in which he argued that Democrats are essentially boxed in by the language of the 14th Amendment.
“If you say he engaged in insurrection — it was the question I asked Nancy Pelosi — I don’t see how you can escape the plain meaning of the 14th amendment and say he’s qualified to run for office,” Stephanopoulos said.
Watch above, via ABC.
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