Democrats’ efforts to bar former President Donald Trump from running for the White House a second time are a form of political extremism, according to Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.
On “Washington Watch,” Perkins addressed the recent Colorado state Supreme Court’s decision to ban Trump from appearing on Republican primary ballots in the state, citing the 14th Amendment in the U.S. Constitution and arguing that the former president committed an act of insurrection against the federal government. Perkins said, “These provisions that were in our Constitution were put there by the Founders in this extreme circumstance where you would use them like a fire extinguisher. You don’t use it every day.”
“This goes back to when Donald Trump was president,” the FRC president explained. He pointed to the two impeachment efforts the Democrats led against Trump before noting the Colorado court’s ruling. “These things are, as we’ve described, kind of emergency provisions in our Constitution. It’s ‘break glass in case of emergency.’ You don’t do this over and over again,” Perkins pointed out. “So what they’re doing is they’re using these emergency provisions, these safety valves in our Constitution to gain what they cannot do politically.” He added, “A problem that you’re going to have when you’re using these tools so frequently is that you never know if it’s being used for justified means or if it’s being used for political means.”
Perkins also noted that this political weaponization of constitutional emergency provisions “is doing grave damage to our republic.” He said, “Look, this is a battle for our republic. This is a battle between good and evil. It’s much bigger than just the United States of America.” He explained, “This is what we read about in the New Testament, about the spirit of the lawless one is already at work ushering in the [end times]. This is setting the stage for that.”
“If we’re to preserve the Republic, it’s going to require Christians in this country to once again understand the times and know what to do,” Perkins stated.
He continued, “And it’s not to shrink back in silence. It’s not to be intimidated. It’s not to feel threatened. It’s not even to be angry. It is to step forward with clarity and with boldness. We’ve got a Constitution. We have truth. We know what it is. We have to stand on it. We have to defend it. By no means should we be quiet in this hour. And what is happening to Donald Trump is a travesty. And whether or not you like Donald Trump or not — I happen to like him — but regardless, you need to speak up. The church needs to speak up with a voice and say, ‘This cannot stand. We will not let it stand.’”
Perkins explained that the mainstream media narrative casts the issue as a purely political one, ignoring the reality of spiritual warfare. “This isn’t politics — it’s playing out in the political sphere,” he explained. “This is spiritual, and there is an all-out spiritual war happening in our nation. And if we do not engage, it’s not just the country we lose. We will usher in the unrestrained lawlessness that we read about in the end times.”
