'Dangerous development': Albert Mohler denounces Trump's Constitution comments

Southern Baptist theologian Albert Mohler has denounced former President Donald Trump's suggestion that the recent revelation Democrats pressured Twitter to censure critical and accurate reporting about the Bidens during the 2020 election allows for the termination of all rules laid out in the U.S. Constitution. 

In an episode of his podcast "The Briefing" on Monday, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, said Trump's posting on social media Saturday was "a direct contradiction of the oath of office for the president of the United States."

"He is not now president of the United States, but he has announced that he's running once again for the office as president of the United States," said Mohler, who supported Trump's 2020 presidential campaign. 

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"This represents an extremely dangerous development. It's a dangerous development even as measured in contrast and comparison with what President Trump has said and done before, both before he was president, while he was in the White House and now subsequent, and once again, a presidential contender."

On Saturday, Trump said that he wanted to terminate the rules of the Constitution in order to fight what he claims was a stolen 2020 presidential election. 

"A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution," wrote Trump, who got as of Tuesday morning over 80,000 likes. 

Mohler went on to say that "this kind of language is incompatible with a conservative cast of mind, a conservative disposition and a conservative understanding of the Constitution."

Conservative pundit and longtime Trump critic Bill Kristol took to Twitter to denounce the comments, and to demand that more Republicans distance themselves from Trump. 

"Trump has progressed from election denial to Constitution denial. Not a surprise, as elections and the peaceful transfer of power are key to the constitutional order," Kristol tweeted. "But this clarifies even more, if clarification were needed, how pathetic is the silence of other Republicans."

For his part, Trump recently tried to walk back his comments, denying that he actually wanted to eliminate constitutional rules in order to reverse the results of the 2020 election.

"The Fake News is actually trying to convince the American People that I said I wanted to ‘terminate’ the Constitution. This is simply more DISINFORMATION & LIES," stated Trump. 

Trump's initial comments were reportedly sparked by Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk's recent statement that Twitter had "interfered in elections" by suppressing posts that would have portrayed Democrats in a more negative light. 

This included censoring tweets that included news reports discussing the questionable contents of Joe Biden's son Hunter's laptop. 

Trump's claim that Democrat opponent Joe Biden did not legitimately win the 2020 presidential election has been contradicted by many sources, including those sympathetic to the former president. 

For example, former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway wrote in a recently released book that Trump lost, writing that "his team simply failed to get the job done." 

"Rather than accepting responsibility for the loss, they played along and lent full-throated encouragement (privately, not on TV) when Trump kept insisting he won," she added, as quoted by Politico.

During his testimony given on behalf of the January 6 Committee, Trump's former Attorney General Bill Barr referred to claims that the 2020 election was stolen as, among other things, "absolute rubbish," "bogus," "complete nonsense" and "bulls---."

In March of last year, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in a Trump campaign lawsuit against the Wisconsin Elections Commission over its handling of the 2020 election.

The refusal to hear the appeal left in place in a lower court decision by three Trump appointees in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit that rejected the Trump campaign's claims of election fraud. 

Last month, Trump announced his plan to run for president in 2024, having already filed his official candidacy paperwork with the Federal Election Commission.