Former US president Donald Trump is facing rebuke after calling for the “termination” of parts of the US Constitution over his claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Mr Trump, who announced last month that he is running again for president, made the claim over the weekend on his Truth Social platform.
“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” he wrote.
“Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”
Incoming House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday described Mr Trump’s statement as strange and extreme, and said Republicans will have to make a choice whether to continue embracing Mr Trump’s anti-democratic views.
“Republicans are going to have to work out their issues with the former president and decide whether they’re going to break from him and return to some semblance of reasonableness or continue to lean in to the extremism, not just of Trump, but Trumpism,” Mr Jeffries said.
Mr Trump, who is the first US president to be impeached twice and whose term ended with his supporters violently storming the Capitol in a deadly bid to halt the peaceful transition of power in 2021, faces escalating criminal investigations, including several that could lead to indictments.
They include the probe into classified documents seized by the FBI from his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago, and ongoing state and federal inquiries related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Mr Trump’s comments came after Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, said he would reveal how Twitter engaged in “free speech suppression” leading up to the 2020 election.
But files released on Friday, which focused on the tech company’s confused response to a story about President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, do not show Democrats trying to limit the story.
The White House on Saturday assailed Mr Trump, saying, “You cannot only love America when you win.”
“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,” spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement.
“Attacking the Constitution and all it stands for is anathema to the soul of our nation.”
– AAP
