Former President Donald Trump's suggestion that the United States should disregard rules, regulations and even the Constitution, because he was cheated out of the last election, attracted scathing criticism on Sunday from politicians of both parties.
Within hours of polls closing in November 2020, Trump started to make baseless claims over how fraud had taken place and that the election was stolen.
And now he said 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."
'Extremism of Trumpism'
Incoming House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said Trump's remarks were extreme, while adding that Republicans will have to make a choice over whether to continue embracing 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," Jeffries said.
Mike Turner of Ohio, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, joined Jeffries in the condemnation of Trump's remarks, saying he "vehemently" disagrees and "absolutely" condemns the comments from the former president.
He also said the comments should be considered as Republicans decide who should lead their party into the next presidential election in 2024.
"There is a political process that has to go forward before anybody is a frontrunner or anybody is even the candidate for the party," he said. "I believe that people certainly are going to take into consideration a statement like this as they evaluate a candidate."
Trump, who is the first president to be impeached twice and whose term ended with his supporters violently storming the Capitol in a deadly bid to halt the transition of power in January 2021, recently declared his intention to run again in 2024.
Meanwhile, he faces a number of criminal investigations. They include the probe into classified documents seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago, and ongoing state and federal inquiries related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.