Elie Honig Explains a Loophole to the 22nd Amendment: ‘I Don’t Want to Encourage This... ‘

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BAIER: “Do you think that’s cut and dry?”
CONEY Barrett: “Well, that‘s — you know, that‘s what the amendment says, right? You know, after FDR had four terms, that‘s what that amendment says.”
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Collins: “Elie?”
HONIG: “Okay, I agree with Justice Barrett. Now, the Constitution —“
Collins: “Do you agree with her that that‘s what the amendment says?”
HONIG: “Right. Yeah. Bret Baier, read it correctly. But now, look, the 22nd Amendment is about 99.8% clear. But let me just explain the 0.2% where it‘s maybe not clear. I‘m not endorsing this, I think it will fail, but let me explain where that 0.2% is coming from. The 22nd Amendment says no person shall be elected to president more than twice, but there‘s arguably a difference between elected and be the president or serve a president. So that gives rise to this theory, maybe he‘ll run as the vice president, and then the president will resign. However, you then have to look at the 12th Amendment, which says, if you‘re ineligible to be president, you‘re ineligible to be vice president. But the response to that — and this is where I think it really gets ridiculous — is ineligible just means the 35 years old, natural-born U.S. citizen and 14 years of residence in the United States. So it‘s one of these situations you just wish the Framers, the people who wrote — well, this this is a later amendment, but the people who wrote the Constitution were just a little clearer. They obviously meant you can‘t be the president twice, but they didn‘t quite say it. I think it loses in court. I don‘t want to encourage this, but that‘s the legal hook that people are hanging on to.”
Collins: “I’m not sure the Framers had Steve Bannon in mind picturing a third term when they were cracking all of this out.”