In a wide-ranging interview on Wednesday's Boston Public Radio, Sen. Edward Markey made his thoughts on former President Donald Trump clear: he "should be in jail, not in the White House."
"I think that the law should be followed, and it's a very important example to set that even a president is not immune to being prosecuted if he has violated the law," Sen. Markey said. "It's a very important statement to make if [Special Counsel] Jack Smith and if the Department of Justice decide that sufficient evidence has been developed to indict."
The former president is currently being investigated for alleged attempts to change 2020 election results in Georgia and potential new charges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
During last year's insurrection attempt, some Trump backers sought to exploit ambiguities in the Electoral Count Act of 1887, arguing that objections to electoral vote counts that day would allow then-Vice President Mike Pence to set aside some states' election results.
In the wake of the attack, members of Congress rallied to clarify the vice president's role in counting electoral votes through the Electoral Count Reform Act, which Markey believes will be tacked onto this year's omnibus spending bill.
"Ultimately, we should just abolish the electoral college," he said. "It's just such an ancient piece of political residue from our Founding Fathers that serves no practical purpose. We should just move to becoming a democracy, where ultimately, it's just one vote, one person — they elect the president of the United States.
"But until we can do that, we need to make sure that the senators and the House members, as they count the electoral college votes, do not have arbitrary decisions that are made to [eviscerate] what has come up from the states."
On regulations for Twitter, TikTok and other tech giants
Last month, after Elon Musk's tumultuous takeover of Twitter, Markey warned the billionaire to "fix [his] companies. Or Congress will." The senator explained his demand on the air, comparing the need for tech regulations to the introduction of seatbelt safety laws and highway regulations.
"As [Musk] takes down the guardrails, as he takes down the safeguards, it's becoming more and more of a dangerous place," Markey said, citing a rise in hate speech and misinformation on Twitter since Musk took over.
And with TikTok facing increasing scrutiny by members of Congress, the platform could see similar regulations down the line.
"Whether it's Twitter or it's TikTok, we have to make sure that they're safe, that they can be trusted, that they're not being compromised — that has to be our goal," Markey said. "And if we can't, we have to move on to that next stage."
"Because of the ultimate Chinese ownership of [TikTok], it's something that we have to make sure has safe and secure protections," he said, clarifying that American children and teens face health and safety issues with "U.S.-oriented technologies as well."
When asked by co-host Jim Braude if members of Congress were up to task on tech regulation and their capabilities to question owners like Musk and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Markey declined to comment on "the technological savvy of my colleagues."
"All you really have to know is how to ask the question of, 'Is there a safeguard here to make sure kids don't get exploited? Mr. Zuckerberg, please explain what you do to make sure that's the case,'" he said.
