Some of Trump’s fiercest rivals rally in his defense after Colorado ballot ruling
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Colorado’s Supreme Court managed to bring an assortment of die-hard anti-Trump Republicans as well as his fellow 2024 GOP rivals to his defense.
The Centennial State’s highest court determined in a bombshell 4-3 ruling late Tuesday that former President Donald Trump should be disqualified from the state’s 2024 primary ballot over his actions surrounding Jan. 6, 2021.
“I think the US Supreme Court is going to reverse that,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday at a campaign event in Iowa.
“They’re doing all this stuff to basically solidify support in the primary for him, get him into the general. And the whole general election is going to be all this legal stuff.”
Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy forcefully condemned the ruling and pledged to withdraw from Colorado’s GOP primary until Trump’s name is restored while urging his rivals to do the same.
“This is what an actual attack on democracy looks like: in an un-American, unconstitutional, and unprecedented decision, a cabal of Democrat judges are barring Trump from the ballot in Colorado,” Ramaswamy said.
“Today’s decision is the latest election interference tactic to silence political opponents and swing the election for whatever puppet the Democrats put up this time by depriving Americans of the right to vote for their candidate of choice.”
So far, other contestants in the 2024 GOP primary refrained from going that far.
“The idea that judges are going to take it upon themselves to decide who can and can’t be on the ballot is truly unthinkable,” presidential hopeful Nikki Haley told Fox News.
“I am going to defeat Donald Trump on my own. I don’t need a judge to go take him off the ballot.”
Even Trump’s most ardent Republican critic in the primary contest, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, felt the Colorado ruling was a bridge too far.
“Donald Trump should not be prevented from being president by any court. He should be prevented from being president of the United States by the voters of this country,” Christie said.
Anti-Trump Republicans defend him
Strikingly, some disillusioned Republicans who have all but sworn off Trump in 2024, rallied in his defense.
“I think that this case is legally wrong and untenable. And I think this kind of action of stretching the law — taking these hyper-aggressive positions to try to knock Trump out of the race are counterproductive, former Attorney General Bill Barr told CNN.
“He feeds on grievance just like a fire feeds on oxygen, and this is going to end up as a grievance that helps him.”
Barr had a bitter falling out with Trump at the tail-end of his presidency over the legal machinations to overturn the 2020 election that coincided with the Capitol riot.
He has publicly urged Republican primary voters to nominate someone other than Trump.
Former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who was one of two Republicans to participate on the since-defunct House Jan. 6 Committee, said he was “mixed” on the matter.
“I think this is probably good for Donald Trump,” Kinzinger told CNN, referring to the politics of the decision.
“The thing I struggle with, and the reason I guess I can’t give a definitive answer, is the Constitution exists for a reason,” he added. “[I’m] not a constitutional lawyer, I have to leave it up to the judges and ultimately the Supreme Court to decide.”
Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who vied against Trump in the 2016 primary and has been one of the most outspoken Republicans against him in public, slammed the ruling.
“I don’t need to lay out my bona fides as my opposition to Donald Trump. But this is just pure partisan ridiculous stuff here,” Kasich told MSNBC. “Look, you’ve got a partisan court — all Democrats. They barely — they barely — could say that he should be disqualified.”
“Think about the precedent of this.”
Some weariness from the left
Although most Democrats cheered the news of Trump’s disqualification, there have been a few whispers of consternation about that decision.
“Do I believe Trump is guilty of inspiring an insurrection and doing nothing to stop it? I was there. Absolutely,” presidential aspirant Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) wrote on X.
”Do I believe it’s wrong to ban him from the ballot in Colorado without a conviction? Absolutely. Do I believe the SCOTUS must opine immediately? Absolutely.”
Presidential contender and environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who switched from Democrat to independent in October, eviscerated the state court’s opinion as “wrong”
“When a court in another country disqualifies an opposition candidate from running, we say, ‘That’s not a real democracy.’ Now it’s happening here.’ Now it’s happening here,” he wrote on X.
“I want to beat him in a fair election, not because he was kicked off the ballot. Let the voters choose, not the courts.”
Technically, the ruling against Trump is stayed until Jan. 4, so that his team has time to file an appeal to the US Supreme Court — which it has vowed to do.
Justices on Colorado’s high court determined that Trump’s conduct “constituted overt, voluntary and direct participation in the insurrection” and invoked Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, also known as the Disqualification Clause to boot him from the ballot.
Republicans in Colorado have hinted at plans to shift to a caucus system if that decision holds. The Centennial State’s primary is set for March 5.
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