President Trump should be executed over his urging Ukraine to investigate the Joe Biden’s son, his 2020 Republican challenger, Gov. Bill Weld, said Monday.
The former Massachusetts governor said Trump telling the Ukrainian president to investigate the business dealings of Hunter Biden amounted to “treason.”
“It’s treason pure and simple,” Weld told MSNBC. “And the penalty for treason under the U.S. code is death. That’s the only penalty.”
“He has now acknowledged that in a single phone call right after he suspended $250 million of military aid to Ukraine, he called up the president of Ukraine and pressed him eight times to investigate Joe Biden, who the president thinks is going to be running against him,” Weld said during an appearance on Morning Joe. “Talk about pressuring a foreign country to interfere with and control a U.S. election. It couldn’t be clearer.”
“And that’s not just undermining democratic institutions,” Weld went on. “That is treason. It’s treason pure and simple. And the penalty for treason under the U.S. Code is death. That’s the only penalty. The penalty on the Constitution is removal from office. And that might look like a pretty good alternative to the president if he can work out a plea deal.”
MSNBC’s hosts notably did not push back on Weld’s call for the execution of the president. Instead Elise Jordan asked how to go about it.
“Governor Weld, you went a little bit further than just impeachment in your prior comments, and I just want to continue with that a bit,” Jordan said. “You said that Donald Trump has committed treason and the penalty for treason under American law is death. What’s the legal framework here? Have you looked into this? How do you see this proceeding?”
“The legal framework is under the U.S. code,” Weld responded. “The only penalty for treason is death. Grounds for removal of office, impeachment are treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. We don’t have to worry about bribery anymore. We don’t have to worry about other high crimes and misdemeanors although I think he committed many. We have treason.”
“We can go right for the hoop,” Weld continued. “This president has been trying to cancel this election for months. He tried to cancel the New Hampshire first-in-the nation primary. That went over like a lead balloon in New Hampshire because they’re not stupid. The people in New Hampshire were the first ones to stand up to President Trump this year.”
“It’s well past time for this guy, in my opinion, he be carted off to save us all,” Weld said. “He’s daring us all to let him be totally lawless. He has no respect for the law. He has no knowledge base under any issues. Why do we want this man as president of the United States? I don’t get it. Now the path is clear. It’s a whole new level, and we have to count noses among the Republicans in the Senate. If they won’t cape this is a bridge too far for us, then they really have no chance at the ballot box next year, not just President Trump but those members of the Senate.”