Video: UVA Prof. Larry Sabato Says We “Need to Take [Trump] Seriously” Regarding His Threat to Seek a Third Term

Interesting interview with UVA Professor Larry Sabato; see below for highlights and video.

• Regarding Trump talking about the unconstitutional idea of him serving a third term as president, Sabato says: “Theoretically it could happen. It’s hard to see how Trump would be able to get away with it. When you really look at the options, a constitutional amendment would be the way to do it, and that’s an impossibility. You’d have to have both parties coming together to agree to change the 22nd amendment, which limits presidents to two elective terms. That isn’t going to happen. There’s isn’t a Democrat out there who would support that. But there are ways for Trump to do it. And as he said, he’s not joking. And one way, I’m sorry to say, is simply to ignore the constitution. All he really needs is for the Republican Party to nominate him for president again. And then he would maneuver to win the general election. There are ways for him to do that as well. And the constitution may say one thing, but he may determine that he’s going to get a third term regardless. Now, I don’t think it’s very likely, but we’ve learned to take him seriously when he repeats things like this over and over. And his key supporters are also talking about it.”

• On the political impact of Trump’s tariffs, Sabato says: “Well, the payoff may be for Democrats, frankly, because Trump seems bound and determined to use tariffs and to make them relatively high and in such a way that Americans will end up paying a great deal more for many different goods and services. So inevitably, people are going to feel pain. And when they feel pain, they blame the incumbent president. Now he blames Biden for everything. But I think we’re coming to the end of the period when that sells, unless to his hard core. But beyond the hard core, most people aren’t going to take that as legitimate. So I think he will suffer for it. I think Americans will suffer for it. Or maybe he’ll rewrite the whole book on tariffs. Maybe he knows something no one else does.”
• On Trump supposedly being angry with Putin and threatening potential sanctions on Russian oil, Sabato says: “I think what Trump is doing is sending Putin a message that Putin is also in his crosshairs. It isn’t just Zelenskyy in ukraine. Now, whether he follows through on this threat is or any other threat against Russia is another question. He certainly hasn’t been anything but friendly to Putin to this point. Maybe this, rhetorically is to balance things, and maybe it’s to get Zelenskyy to see that he’s serious about making Russia comply with his ideas as well. But we’ll all believe it when we see it, because so far, it seems that it’s been much more difficult for Zelenskyy in Ukraine than it has been for Russia and Putin.”
• On the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, Sabato says: “Well, if you ever wanted an argument against judicial elections, this is it. A lot of us feel it is absurd to be electing judges. They should be appointed by governors, ratified by legislatures, much as they are at the national level. But essentially, this one seat in Wisconsin is the swing-state seat. It will determine whether liberals or conservatives control the Wisconsin Supreme Court. And Wisconsin, of course, is the fulcrum state. It’s the key swing state. So it’s very important, which is why, according to some reports, Elon Musk is spending somewhere around $20 million just on the election. Plus, he’s offering million dollar gifts to a couple of people who back his petition to have this kind of election. But we’ll see what the public thinks about this. They may be turned off by this massive amount of money that Elon Musk is contributing and that others are contributing on the other side. It’s really quite obscene.”