Donald Trump's campaign has unleashed a furious attack on Maine's top election official after she banned him from running for the Oval Office in the state, with both Republican and Democratic rivals supporting the former president.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows last night ordered Trump not to appear on the ballot in the 2024 election.
Her decision made Maine the second state to make a concerted effort to block the former president from running for high office.
Both Colorado and Maine found that Trump had participated in an insurrection and was therefore ineligible to hold office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
But Michigan found otherwise on Wednesday, and California sided with Michigan on Thursday evening, ruling that Trump could remain on the ballot.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows last night ordered Trump not to appear on the ballot in the 2024 election
Trump's campaign released a statement excoriating the secretary of state's decision
Bellows, a Democrat, told CNN on Thursday evening that while she knew her decision was historic, she stood by it, even though she had decided to put the decision on hold until the Supreme Court decided to rule on the matter.
But Trump's campaign released a statement excoriating the secretary of state's decision.
“The Secretary of State of Maine is a former ACLU attorney, a vicious leftist and a bipartisan Biden-supporting Democrat who has decided to interfere in the presidential election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden,” said Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung.
“We are witnessing in real time the attempted theft of the election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter,” he added.
“Democrats in blue states are recklessly and unconstitutionally abrogating the civil rights of American voters by attempting to summarily remove President Trump’s name from the ballot.”
“Make no mistake, these partisan election interference efforts are a hostile attack on American democracy.” Biden and the Democrats simply do not trust American voters to have a free and fair election and are now relying on the power of government institutions to maintain their power to protect.
Trump's campaign accused Bellows of attempted “election theft”
Maine Secretary of State Sheena Bellows on Thursday defended her decision to remove Trump from her state's primary
“State courts in Michigan and Minnesota have rejected these malicious, fraudulent election challenges under the 14th Amendment, as have federal courts in New Hampshire, Arizona, Florida, Rhode Island, West Virginia and ten other federal jurisdictions.”
“We know that both the Constitution and the American people are with us in this fight.” President Trump's dominant campaign has a commanding lead in the polls, which has increased dramatically as the presidency of the crooked Joe Biden continues to fail.
“We will quickly file a legal challenge in state court to prevent this cruel decision from taking effect in Maine, and President Trump will never stop fighting to Make America Great Again.”
Although polling data showed Donald Trump maintaining a consistently large lead over his Republican rivals, several spoke in favor of Trump just hours after the decision was released.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said on Fox News shortly after the Maine decision was announced: “It opens Pandora's Box.” Can a Republican Secretary of State exclude Biden from the vote?
Vivek Ramaswamy, another presidential rival, said: “This is what an actual threat to democracy looks like.” “The system is determined to eliminate this man, the constitution be damned.”
He is accused of inciting an insurrection at the Capitol in 2021
Trump is currently facing multiple civil and criminal cases in courts across the country
Nikki Haley's campaign, meanwhile, said: “Nikki will beat Trump fair and square. “It should be up to voters to decide who gets elected.”
But Democrats also voiced loud criticism of Maine's decision to exclude Trump from the election.
Jared Golden, a congressman from Maine, said in a statement: “I voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the January 6th insurrection.”
“I don’t believe he should be re-elected as president of the United States. However, we are a nation of laws, so he should be allowed on the ballot until he is actually convicted of the crime of insurrection.”
Bellows told CNN: “The textual analysis of the Constitution and the facts presented to me at the hearing to which I was required under Maine law led me to this decision.”
When asked by moderator John Berman about the Trump campaign, in which he accused it of “stealing the election and disenfranchising the American voter,” Bellows said she made her decision with great care.
“I am so aware – and I said this in my decision – that it is unprecedented.”
Trump's lead in the Republican primaries has steadily grown
The Colorado Supreme Court has decided to bar Trump from voting in the state
Nikki Haley's (pictured) campaign said: “Nikki will beat Trump fair and square.” It should be up to voters to decide who gets elected.
“No Secretary of State has ever denied a presidential candidate access to the ballot based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.”
“But no presidential candidate has ever participated in an insurrection and been disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.”
Bellows, who ran her own nonprofit consulting firm before entering politics, has no legal training but said she is doing her duty under Maine law.
“The weight of the evidence presented under Maine law in the Section 336 lawsuit made it clear that Mr. Trump was aware of the tinder he was creating in his months-long effort to undermine the legitimacy of the 2020 election to ask the question,” she said.
“And then, in an unprecedented and tragic series of events, he decided to light a match.”
She said that under Maine law it doesn't matter that he didn't have a criminal conviction for insurrection.
“At the hearing we reviewed the evidence. We checked the facts and the law.
“And certainly the question of whether Mr. Trump was involved in the insurrection is closer than the question of whether January 6, 2021 was an insurrection, which I also decided.”
“But the question of whether Mr. Trump was found guilty, the applicability of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, does not depend on whether an appointee was convicted of a crime.”
“We looked at the precedent in the Civil War. “We looked at the law, we looked at the facts, we looked at what was presented in this hearing specifically for Maine law.”
Bellows said she had a “duty” to assess whether voters were eligible to vote, such as making sure they met age and citizenship requirements. Likewise, she had to assess whether candidates were electable – and she noted that she concluded that Chris Christie was ineligible because he did not have enough signatories to take part in the election.
Vivek Ramaswamy, another presidential rival (pictured), said: “This is what an actual threat to democracy looks like.” The system is determined to eliminate this man, Constitution be damned.
Aggregated polling data from FiveThirtyEight shows Trump's lead in the race for the 2024 Republican nomination has grown steadily since the start of the year
Trump is expected to remain on Colorado's ballot while the Supreme Court decides whether he should be allowed to stay
And she said she would like to see the U.S. Supreme Court make the final decision on the legal issues.
Trump is expected to refer the Colorado and Maine decisions to higher courts.
“I certainly believe that the Supreme Court of the United States is the ultimate interpreter of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment,” she said.
“So yeah, I think ideally they will rule.” And they haven't done that yet.
“But if they govern, we will certainly abide by their decision.”
Bellows' decision does not take effect immediately because it gives Trump time to appeal.
Their decision came after the Colorado Republican Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to address the lower court's ruling that barred Trump from participating in the state's presidential election because of his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots had excluded.
Jena Griswold, Colorado's secretary of state, announced Thursday that Trump would remain on the ballot for now, which goes to print on Jan. 5 — unless the Supreme Court affirms the lower court's decision or otherwise declines to hear the appeal .
The 4-3 ruling on Dec. 19 said Trump would not appear on the state's primary ballot under a 155-year-old clause of the 14th Amendment that bans from office those who have “participated in insurrection.” .
Although it's unlikely that Colorado's 10 Electoral College votes will go to the Republican candidate in the general election anyway – and the state isn't particularly important in GOP primaries – the ruling could set a precedent for a whole host of other states, those who want to remove Trump from office vote.
However, the Michigan Supreme Court has already decided after Colorado to keep the ex-president on the ballot for the state's primaries – and the swing state in the Midwest is much more important for entering the White House in 2024.
Louisiana was the latest state to file a lawsuit to keep Trump off the ballot in connection with the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021.
“Donald Trump participated in the insurrection and was barred from voting in Colorado under the Constitution,” Griswold said in a news release.
“The Colorado Supreme Court got it right.” That decision is now being appealed,” she continued.
“I call on the U.S. Supreme Court to act quickly as the presidential election approaches.”
The Colorado Supreme Court has stayed or stayed its ruling until Jan. 4 to allow time for the appeal process.
Aggregated polling data from FiveThirtyEight shows Trump's lead in the race for the 2024 Republican nomination has grown steadily since the start of the year.
His closest rival, DeSantis, has fallen out of favor with the public and now has just 11.7% of the vote, while Trump has 61.7% of the vote.