Presidential historian Michael Beschloss on Saturday explained that the U.S. Constitution has a provision to prevent people like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) from serving in office.
"First of all, has this ever happened before in the United States?" MSNBC's Alex Witt asked. "Has a sitting president been delighted by scenes of chaos and carnage?"
"Never," Beschloss replied. "Ever."
"We never had a rebellion like this, an insurrection that was encouraged and maybe planned and executed by the president of the United States. We don't know that yet," he explained. "This is a president that you and I saw that speech he gave. He told the crowd to march up to the Capitol, stop the counting of the ballots and the stolen election -- which was not stolen -- and later on from the White House told them, 'We love you, you're special.' No one will say that Trump did not authorize and possibly plan this."
"The other questions linger. Was this an assassination attempt against the vice president, against the speaker of the House, others in the line of succession to Donald Trump? Were these people trying to steal those mahogany boxes? Was this a coup attempt? Why did law enforcement allow this terrorist mob to get into the capitol and were there ties between this effort and a foreign government? All those are big questions, we now have to refer them to the courts, to Congress and to the next president of the United States, maybe a commission."
"And one more thing, if I might add to this, 14th Amendment of the Constitution says if you're a member of Congress -- senator or representative -- and you have aided an insurrection, you can't sit in Congress. As far as I'm concerned that may well define Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, others involved with this," he explained. "Congress is going to look very hard at these people and say, 'Are they allowed to continue in Congress under our Constitution?'"
Beschloss was referencing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
"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," the Constitution says. "But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."
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