Steven Calabresi, a professor of law at Northwestern University who has offered broad defenses for the president in recent years, wrote: “I am frankly appalled at the recent tweet from the president seeking to postpone the November election. Until recently, he had taken hyperbole Politics to Democrats “Affirmation that President Trump is a Fascist”.
“But this latest tweet is fascist and is itself the reason for the immediate removal of the president by the House of Representatives and his removal by the Senate,” he said.
It is a significant break with the co-founder of one of the most influential groups in Republican politics. The Federalist Society has become a leading conservative and libertarian voice in recent years, urging judges to have a limited role in the problems of society.
The group has also worked closely with Republican administrations to influence the selection of judges. Its leaders advised the George W. Bush administration on appointments and, for Trump, they have become an even closer partner in the selection of candidates for the bench.
The scathing assessment comes hours after Trump explicitly blew up delaying the November election in a tweet claiming without evidence that the contest will be flawed.
“With universal voting by mail (not absentee voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACTIVE and FRAUDULENT election in history. It will be a great shame for the United States,” he wrote. “Delaying the election until people can vote properly and safely?”
Trump has no authority to delay an election, and the Constitution gives Congress the power to set the date to vote. Lawmakers from both parties said almost immediately that the election was unlikely to be delayed.
“All Republicans in Congress must tell President Trump that he cannot postpone the federal elections,” Calabresi wrote. “To do so would be illegal, unconstitutional, and unprecedented in the history of the United States. Anyone who says otherwise should never be elected to Congress again.”
Senate Judiciary President Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina and Trump’s ally, told CNN when asked about the president’s call to delay the election: “I don’t think it’s a particularly good idea.”
And Republican leadership Senator Whip John Thune of South Dakota told CNN there will be elections in November despite the president’s tweet.
“I think that is probably a statement that gets the press’s attention, but I doubt that it will receive any serious traction,” Thune said. “I think we have had elections every November since about 1788, and I hope that will be the case again this year.”
Even with dozens of Republicans openly challenging Trump’s tweet, Calabresi’s opinion piece stands out as a surprising defection given his long history in the Republican Party. While he has offered some criticism of the President in the past, Calabresi has gained significant notoriety in recent years for his blunt rejections of the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, as well as the Trump indictment of his conduct with Ukraine.
CNN’s Annie Grayer, Kevin Liptak and Betsy Klein contributed to this report.
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