‘His Jokes Are Not Jokes’: House Democrat Urges Vote to Make Clear Trump Can’t Seek a Third Term

MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing spoke to NBC News political reporter Ryan Nobles on Thursday about the recent push in the Democratic Party to reinforce the Constitutional limit on Donald Trump seeking a third term.

Jansing began by noting Trump running again is “something prohibited in the Constitution.”

“But that didn’t stop the president-elect from telling House Republicans yesterday, quote, ‘I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say he’s so good. We’ve got to figure something else.’ Republicans seem to take it as a joke. Another in a series that Trump has made on the subject,” Jansing said before playing a supercut of Trump’s past jokes about serving indefinitely.

“Well, whether he’s joking or not, a House Democrat is taking the idea seriously and wants to make sure no constitutional loophole exists. NBC’s Ryan Nobles is on Capitol Hill. Mark Michael Hadaway is back with me. So, Ryan, Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman wants to clarify that the 22nd Amendment prohibition of being elected more than twice applies, even if the terms are not consecutive. What more can you tell us?” Jansing asked Nobles.

“Well, the Constitution is pretty clear about this, Chris, but I think Democrats have seen how Donald Trump has pushed the norms of conventions in Washington and want to make 100% sure that he would not even attempt to try and run for a third term. And that’s why you see Dan Goldman offering up this resolution that really has no binding effect, but would essentially put Republicans on the record that they agree that the Constitution says the president can only run twice. Listen to what Dan Goldman had to say about it last night,” Nobles said before playing a soundbite of Rep. Goldman (D-NY):

His jokes are not jokes. Nobody takes them as jokes. They are trial balloons. They are very intentionally designed to soften the response and then to normalize his unconstitutional and anti-democratic goals.

“And so that’s why Democrats want to get their Republican colleagues on the record right now before Donald Trump even takes office for a second time to make clear that everybody’s on the same page here, that the Constitution is very specific about this, and it says nothing about consecutive terms,” Nobles added, concluding:

It says nothing about the fact that if the president runs after he’s already been out of office, that he can run again. And whether or not this even makes it to the floor, I think is an open question now, Chris. But the fact that we’re even talking about it shows that it is something that Democrats are concerned about.

Watch the clip above.