Sunday, July 14, 2024

Remarkable Ignorance



Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday included lawyer and Orthodox Jewish conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro;  CNN commentator and former South Carolina state legislator Bakari Sellers; and former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. In the Overtime segment, the first question pertained to speculation about the identity of Donald Trump's pick as a vice=presidential running mate.

- Sellers: the only person who poses any fear for Democrats is probably Marco Rubio. Marco- he looks like the future, he has a great deal of experience, he can talk to Hispanic voters in ways and communicate in ways that otherwise Trump and Burgum would have trouble doing and he's a notable opponent to Kamala Harris in debate. There's no concern over Burgum or J.D. Vance. J.D. Vance- uh, he stands for nothing.

- Maher: But,uh, wait a second. I read that because they're both from Florida, Trump and Rubio, that they can't be on the same ticket.

- McCarthy: So Rubio would move to Virginia-same thing that Cheney did. He moved out of Texas and went back to Wyoming. You can't come from the same state.

- Maher: I know. So you move-

- Shapiro: He could residency, actually, in Nevada, right? He actually spends a fair amount of his year in Nevada.

- McCarthy: He would have to resign from the Senate and-

- Shapiro: DeSantis would appoint his replacement.

- McCarthy: Yeah.

- Maher: So-

- McCarthy: He can do it. He just can't be from the same state.





Four men, three white and one black, two Democrats and two Republicans. Three of the four make their living from politics and one is fairly well-versed in politics as a de facto requirement of his vocation as a comedian.

And all of them ignorant.

Article II, paragraph 3 of the USA Constitution states "The electors.... shall vote for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves."  A constitutional scholar and political science professor explains

In 1804, the United States adopted the 12th Amendment, which addresses some of the confusion around the Electoral College and altered the process. The Vice President was put on a separate ballot, allowing electors to vote for one person for President and another person for Vice President. Now, candidates for both offices simply run together as a unified ticket. However, the residual requirement that the electors could not cast both ballots for a person from their own state was not removed.

No, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a presidential and a vice-presidential nominee of the same party can come from the same state. Someone on that four-person panel should have realized it. But the ignorance of an individual who recently served as the highest-ranking Republican in the nation is astounding, at the least.




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