By Mark Gray
3:47pm PST, Jan 27, 2024
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Donald Trump has issues in the state of Colorado.
On Dec. 19, 2023, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the likely Republican presidential nominee is ineligible for office because of the 14th Amendment's "insurrectionist ban." In a 4-3 ruling, the state court found that the former POTUS "engaged in" an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol. Further, the court said Trump's speech to his supporters that day is "not protected by the First Amendment" due to his "inciting the crowd."
After the ruling, Trump took to social media to call it a "sad day in America." Amid a fundraising plea, he added, "What a shame for our country!!!"
While Trump and nearly all Republicans are blaming Democrats for the ban, the truth is actually vastly different. In September, a group of Republican and no-party-affiliation voters filed the lawsuit to block the former president from the 2024 Republican primary ballot in Colorado.
The former POTUS's luck turned on Dec. 27, 2023, when Colorado's Republican party filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, which led Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold to announce that she would include Trump on the primary ballot on the Jan. 5 certification deadline, Fox News reported, unless the U.S. Supreme Court either declined to take up the case or affirmed the lower court's ruling.
Well, on Jan. 5, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed that it would take up the case and rule on whether Trump is eligible — or not.
On top of the Colorado debacle, on Dec. 28, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows — after a bipartisan group of former state lawmakers filed a challenge against Trump's eligibility for office also based on the 14th Amendment's "insurrectionist ban" — announced a decision to remove the former president from the state's 2024 ballot.
"I do not reach this conclusion lightly," she wrote of her decision. "Democracy is sacred … I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection."
Keep reading to see how celebrities, politicians and rivals reacted to the news…
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"I hate Trump. I think he is a vile person who has done irreparable damage to my country. But, Americans have a constitutional right to vote or not vote as they choose. Democrats are betting their horse on a man who will be 86 at the end of a second term. These aren't options." –Meghan McCain
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"The Left invokes 'democracy' to justify its use of power, even if it means abusing judicial power to remove a candidate from the ballot based on spurious legal grounds. SCOTUS should reverse." —Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who's running for president as a Republican
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"I will beat him fair and square. We don't need to have judges making these decisions. We need voters to make these decisions. The last thing we want is judges telling us who can and can't be on the ballot" —Former South Carolina Governor and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who's gunning for the Republican presidential nomination
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"Mitch McConnell, John Thune and John Cornyn remain silent. Of the 4 most senior members of Senate Republican leadership, [John] Barrasso is the only one with the courage to weigh in against what the radical left is trying to do to my father." —Donald Trump Jr.
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"THANK YOU, #COLORADO! The first state in the Union to throw #Trump off the ballot!!" —Bette Midler
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"I just can't believe what they're trying to do" –Roseanne Barr
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"Let me know when he's off the planet." –Ellen Barkin
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"I pledge to withdraw from the Colorado GOP primary unless Trump is also allowed to be on the state's ballot, and I demand that Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, and Nikki Haley to do the same immediately — or else they are tacitly endorsing this illegal maneuver which will have disastrous consequences for our country… 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" —Vivek Ramaswamy, who's running for president as a Republican
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"So glad someone has some common sense!" –Padma Lakshmi
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"The Colorado Supreme Court, stating the obvious, has ruled that Donald Trump, having engaged in Insurrection, be removed from the ballot and be barred from holding public office. Nice to see a little sanity poking its head up." —Rob Reiner
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"Whether the 14th Amendment applies, I'll let the court make that decision. But he certainly supported an insurrection. There's no question about it. None. Zero. He seems to be doubling down on everything." –President Joe Biden
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"Only 49 states left to rig." –Kevin Sorbo
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"Makes perfect sense that a former president or any person who has engaged in an insurrection should therefore be disqualified from the presidency." –Mia Farrow
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"The drafters of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment understood why you needed to keep dangerous insurrectionists off the ballot in the first place." –George Takei
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"Donald Trump has never been found guilty of any crime, ever. Most certainly he has never been convicted of insurrection. The real 'war on democracy' is being waged in Colorado. #Shame" —James Woods
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"Imagine what would happen in our country if the Texas Supreme Court took Biden off the ballot because he's suspected of being guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors. The whole nation would catch on fire. This is dangerous stuff. I hope the Supreme Court weighs in soon." —John Rich
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"EVERY single thing the Democrats WARNED about Trump was not a warning at all… It was a roadmap of what the Democrats intended to do when they regained power. Can you imagine the Dem meltdown if Republicans did this to a Dem Presidential candidate?!" –Rob Schneider
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"#VivekRamaswamy says he'll remove his name from ballot in Colorado if Trump is not reinstated? That's like a team that won't even make the playoffs, refusing to play in the Super Bowl" –D.L. Hughley
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"I'm not a Trump supporter (if I were, I wouldn't be running against him!) But I want to beat him in a fair election, not because he was kicked off the ballot. Let the voters choose, not the courts! Every American should be troubled by the Colorado Supreme Court's decision to remove President Trump from the ballot." —Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who's running for president as an Independent
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"I do not believe Donald Trump should be prevented from being president of the United States by any court. I think he should be prevented from being president of the United States by the voters of this country." —Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who's gunning for the Republican presidential nomination
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"Today's ruling attempting to disqualify President Trump from the Colorado ballot is nothing but a thinly veiled partisan attack.
Regardless of political affiliation, every citizen registered to vote should not be denied the right to support our former president and the individual who is the leader in every poll of the Republican primary.
We trust the U.S. Supreme Court will set aside this reckless decision and let the American people decide the next President of the United States." —House Speaker Mike Johnson
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"Colorado is on the verge of becoming the new Venezuela. Four lawyers have decided that their views outweigh the 1,364,607 Coloradans who voted for Donald Trump in 2020. Keeping a political opponent from even running is the behavior of a dictatorship not a democracy. Coloradans should demand these four partisan destroyers of democracy be removed from office. There were 341,000 Colorado voters for Trump for each self appointed freedom killer. They should not be allowed to pretend they are judges. They replace the rule of law with the rule of power. Welcome to Venezuela or Cuba or Nicaragua." —Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
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"Liberals on the Colorado Supreme Court just ruled that Trump SHOULD NOT appear on the Colorado primary ballot for 2024. This is extreme judicial activism that is designed to suppress the vote and voices of hundreds of thousands of Coloradans, which is absolutely unacceptable. I am confident the U.S. Supreme Court will remedy this horrible decision so Coloradans will have the right to cast their ballot for our 45th and 47th President, Donald J. Trump. We will fight this every step of the way!" –Congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado
