Tuesday, November 7, 2000 was bitterly cold in Washington. Gathered on a terrace in front of the White House, a few dozen journalists were trying to predict who would be the new president of the United States: the Democrat and Vice President Al Gore or the Republican and Governor George W. Bush, aspirants to the throne vacated by Bill Clinton. The hours passed and the polls did not dare to give the name of the winner because the decisive 25 electoral votes of Florida danced from one candidate to the other. In the morning and one step away from hypothermia, we gave up all hope. For the first time in recent history, Americans were going to bed without knowing who their president would be and the country was entering unfamiliar legal territory.
Thirty-five days after the elections, a handful of votes, 537 ballots, declared the victory of the Bush jr. in an obscure Supreme Court decision. 24 years have passed and the last judicial instance once again holds the key to the presidential elections. Two states, Maine and Colorado, have challenged the candidacy of Donald Trump because he encouraged the insurrection against the Capitol after the 2020 election that he lost to Joe Biden. The evidence of proven facts is so incontestable that doubt offends. Trump urged, promoted and called the mob against Parliament in order to prevent the confirmation of his adversary and, therefore, to subvert the popular will with a coup d’état.
The 14th amendment bars from public office any official who has urged an insurrection against the republic. Exactly what Trump did. But, in spite of everything, it is highly unlikely that the Supreme Court will exclude him from the presidential race. Trump may be a fool, but he runs the system like nobody’s business. During his presidency, he appointed three Supreme Court judges of proven obedience, which raised the number of conservatives against the three progressives to six. In addition, two of those elected were part of Bush’s legal team in the litigation against Al Gore. Trump faces with marked cards, hatred and revenge the final assault on the White House, a lethal cocktail in a year in which democracy will be tested in half the world.