You’ve got to hand it to Donald Trump. The guy certainly has a knack for making a fool of himself.

From dining with rabid anti-Semites to urging on Truth Social we should consider terminating the Constitution so he could be reinstated as president. You lost, Donald. Get over it and move on.

As you can imagine, reaction was swift, forceful, and fierce from many Democrats.

“You cannot only love America when you win,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement. “The American Constitution is a sacrosanct document that for over 200 years has guaranteed that freedom and the rule of law prevail in our great country.”

“Every congressional reporter should demand responses from Congressional Republicans about Donald Trump’s call for the Constitution to be terminated … how many of them called themselves ‘Constitutional conservatives’ during the Obama years???” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) tweeted Saturday evening.

“Donald Trump wants to suspend the Constitution in the name of protecting the Constitution, just like he perpetrated election fraud in the name of preventing election fraud,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) tweeted.

“January 6 was Donald Trump’s attempt at terminating the US Constitution. He’s a repeat offender,” Torres added in another tweet.

Even some Republican politicians came out and criticized the former president.

“We should never dishonor that oath,” said South Dakota Sen. Mike rounds. “No one is above the Constitution. Anyone who desires to lead our country must commit to protecting the Constitution. They should not threaten to terminate it.”

Rounds added that “there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would alter the results of the 2020 election.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) also condemned Trump’s comments on Twitter. “Suggesting the termination of the Constitution is not only a betrayal of our Oath of Office, it’s an affront to our Republic,” she tweeted on Sunday night.

Former Vice President Mike Pence spoke out as well, telling WVOC radio in Columbia, S.C.: “Everyone that serves in public office, everyone that aspires to serve or to serve again, should make it clear that we will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Trump attempted to attribute blame to the media for supposedly “misrepresenting his words,” lying in a caps-lock laden post on Truth Social that his false claims of widespread voter fraud were “irrefutably proven.”

Truth be told, for an individual who is under intense investigation for attempting to overthrow the government, it’s quite an act of supreme arrogance to issue such a bold statement.

Predictably, though not surprisingly, many Republican leaders have hesitated to weigh in on the comments of the former president, opting instead to pussyfoot around such alarming commentary.

I know it’s been several years and we all have Trump fatigue, but just think about it for a moment –  a former commander-in-chief has called for the termination of the Constitution, and the response from the majority of politicians in one party is crickets.

Such a level of silence is deafening, and nothing short of pure cowardice. A sad commentary to be sure.

Such a chilling degree of spinelessness among so many in the GOP demonstrates the chilling degree of power and fear that the twice impeached former president has tyrannically inflicted upon the Republicans. This abject amount of fear saturating the party does not bode well for their 2024 prospects.

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Copyright 2022 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.