Ex-president Donald Trump decried the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to remove him from the 2024 president primary ballot in the Rocky Mountain state as ‘election interference’ on TruthSocial platform.
On Tuesday, a divided court ruled Trump ineligible for the White House under the US Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot, setting up a likely showdown in the nation’s highest court to decide whether the front-runner for the GOP nomination can remain in the race.
Trump, 77, has not issued an official response to the ruling but rather posted numerous videos of various pro-Trump talking heads bemoaning the decision on Fox News.
While campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement that Trump has ‘full confidence’ that the decision will be overturned when it reaches the conservative Supreme Court in Washington.
Cheung said that the decision in Colorado was ‘unsurprising’ and called it part of a ‘left-wing group’s scheme to interfere in an election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden.’
Four justices appointed by Democratic governors, Justices, Richard L. Gabriel, Melissa Hart, William W. Hood III and Monica Márquez, all circled, voted to disqualify the former president
Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung, pictured next to Trump in the Oval Office in 2020, said that an appeal has been filed with the Supreme Court
The former White House staffer alleged that powerful Democratic Party members are ‘in a state of paranoia over the growing, dominant lead’ in the Republican primary and that they are ‘doing everything they can to stop the American voters from throwing them out of office next November.’
Cheung said that the appeal was filed last night.
Trump did not make a direct reference to the Colorado decision during a rally Tuesday night in Waterloo, Iowa, other than to accuse the Democratic Party of attempting to rig the 2024 election.
The video that accompanied Trump’s message alleging ‘election interference’ saw conservative activist Charlie Hurt allege that the Colorado court has ‘opened the floodgates’ with its decision.
‘This will open the floodgates. You will have left-wing lunatic states all around the country trying to do the same thing,’ Hurt said.
‘This has very little to do with ballot access in the general election. It has to do with barring Donald Trump from getting the Republican nomination… Democrat leaders have also lost faith in democracy and that’s what we’re seeing in Colorado today.’
‘The Democrats in Colorado are so afraid of allowing American voters to vote and pick the next president they are willing to do extrajudicial things, complete highway robbery here in order to thwart the people’s choice from being on the ballot,’ he added.
Trump did not make a direct reference to the Colorado decision during a rally Tuesday night in Waterloo
Legal scholar Jonathan Turley slammed the Colorado Supreme Court for its ruling that removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 Republican primary ballot
The former Apprentice host also quoted conservative legal scholar Jonathan Turley who said in an appearance on Fox the US is now a ‘powder keg.’
‘This country is a powder keg and this court is just throwing matches at it…for people that say they are trying to protect democracy, this is hands down the most anti-democratic opinion I’ve seen in my lifetime,’ Turley said.
The president then posted another video featuring another conservative talking head, Gregg Jarrett, who reiterated allegations of ‘election rigging.’
‘This is an effort, make no mistake, to deprive American voters of their right to make the decision as to who should be president. It is anti-democratic. It’s the equivalent of rigging the ballot box,’ Jarrett said.
Ned Ryun of the American Majority, a right-wing organization, also said that the Democratic Party were scared of Trump’s popularity,
‘They don’t want the voters to decide this…there is obviously this deep fear of Donald Trump potentially winning the White House back,’ he told Laura Ingraham.
On the same show, Chris Laundau, a former law clerk for conservative judges Thomas and Scalia, simply said: ‘It’s not good for the country at all.’
In opening her how, Ingraham used Trump’s phrase declaring the decision: ‘Election interference.’
Trump’s legal spokeswoman Alina Habba said in a statement Tuesday night: ‘This ruling, issued by the Colorado Supreme Court, attacks the very heart of this nation’s democracy. It will not stand, and we trust that the Supreme Court will reverse this unconstitutional order.’
Trump didn’t mention the decision during a rally Tuesday evening in Waterloo, Iowa, but his campaign sent out a fundraising email citing what it called a ‘tyrannical ruling.’
Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel labeled the decision ‘Election interference’ and said the RNC’s legal team intends to help Trump fight the ruling.
Trump lost Colorado by 13 percentage points in 2020 and doesn’t need the state to win next year’s presidential election. But the danger for the former president is that more courts and election officials will follow Colorado’s lead and exclude Trump from must-win states.
Supporters of Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump attend a campaign event in Waterloo, Iowa, U.S. December 19, 2023
The decision from a court whose justices were all appointed by Democratic governors marks the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.
‘A majority of the court holds that Trump is disqualified from holding the office of president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment,’ the court wrote in its 4-3 decision.
Colorado’s highest court overturned a ruling from a district court judge who found that Trump incited an insurrection for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but said he could not be barred from the ballot because it was unclear that the provision was intended to cover the presidency.
The court stayed its decision until Jan. 4, or until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the case. Colorado officials say the issue must be settled by Jan. 5, the deadline for the state to print its presidential primary ballots.
‘We do not reach these conclusions lightly,’ wrote the court’s majority. ‘We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.’