WASHINGTON ― Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump advocated for a literal interpretation of the Constitution during the third, and final debate, on Wednesday.
“The justices that I’m going to appoint will be pro-life, they will have a conservative vent,” Trump said in response to a question about how the Constitution should be interpreted. “They will be protecting the Second Amendment. They are great scholars in all cases ― and they’re people of tremendous respect. They will interpret the Constitution the way the founders wanted it interpreted.”
That’s not cool. Here’s what was going on when the Constitution was written in 1787.
1. Slavery was legal. Black people were enslaved.
2. Enslaved Africans were considered to be three-fifths of a person.
3. Only white people were considered to be people.
4. Only white men who owned property could vote.
5. LGBT couples couldn’t get married.
Trump, who built his campaign by dehumanizing people of color, is advocating for a time when wealthy white men were the only people who mattered.
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton took a more measured approach.
“The Supreme Court needs to stand on the side of the American people, not on the side of the powerful ― on the side of the powerful corporations and the wealthy,” she said. “For me, that means that we need a Supreme Court that will stand up on behalf of women’s rights, on behalf of the rights of the LGBT community, that will stand up and say no to Citizens United.”
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.
Before You Go
