Re: Maine Democrat blasts secretary of state for pulling Trump off primary ballot

[Modelo - The Mark Of A Faggot]

On 29 Dec 2023, Trumper <patr...@protonmail.com> posted some
news:umnsfs$11765$1...@dont-email.me:

> Bellows is just a stupid left-wing cunt looking for 5 minutes of fame.

One of Maine’s two Democratic members of the House of Representatives
ripped his state’s secretary of state for unilaterally removing former
President Donald Trump from the 2024 Republican primary ballot.

“I voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the January 6th
insurrection. I do not believe he should be re-elected as President of
the United States,” Rep. Jared Golden said in a statement late Thursday.

“However, we are a nation of laws, therefore, until he is actually found
guilty of the crime of insurrection, he should be allowed on the
ballot,” added Golden, who represents Maine’s rural 2nd District, which
Trump carried in both 2016 and 2020.

Golden was joined in his criticism of Maine Secretary of State Shanna
Bellows’ decision by Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with the
Democrats in the upper chamber of Congress.

King noted that while he had voted to convict Trump of incitement of
insurrection in February 2021 after the 45th president had been
impeached on that charge by the House, “the required two-thirds of the
Senate did not do so.”

“Although I respect the Secretary of State’s careful process … absent a
final judicial determination of a violation of the 14th Amendment’s
disqualification clause, I believe the decision as to whether or not Mr.
Trump should again be considered for the presidency should rest with the
people as expressed in free and fair elections,” King added. “This is
the ultimate check within our Constitutional system.”

Trump is the odds-on favorite for the GOP’s presidential nomination,
leading national polls by more than 50 percentage points, according to
the RealClearPolitics average.

The polling aggregator also shows him ahead of President Biden in the
national popular vote.

Bellows disqualified Trump from the March 5 primary, saying his efforts
to overturn the 2020 election that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot
constituted an “insurrection.”

Her decision followed a Dec. 19 ruling from Colorado’s Supreme Court to
the same effect, with both parties pointing to a prohibition in the 14th
Amendment barring those who have “engaged in insurrection” from holding
office again.

“I do not reach this conclusion lightly. Democracy is sacred,” Bellows
wrote in her 34-page decision. “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,” she stated, calling the riot at the
Capitol “unprecedented and tragic,” she added.

Bellows’ decision was backed by Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), who said
in a statement: “The text of the Fourteenth Amendment is clear. No
person who engaged in an insurrection against the government can ever
again serve in elected office.

“On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump incited a violent mob to block
Congress from certifying the Electoral College and to overturn the
results of the 2020 presidential election,” Pingree added. “Our
Constitution is the very bedrock of America and our laws, and it appears
that Trump’s actions are prohibited by the Constitution.”

The Colorado Republican Party has since appealed that state’s Supreme
Court decision to the US Supreme Court after the Colorado justices
stayed their ruling until Jan. 4, which will allow Trump to remain on
the ballot until then.

Colorado has to certify all presidential candidates nominated by
political parties on Jan. 5, meaning the Supreme Court must decide
whether to take up the state GOP appeal before then.

The Michigan Supreme Court declined to rule along the same lines Dec. 27
in response to a complaint filed in its state, keeping the former
president in that Feb. 27 primary contest.

On Thursday, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber also chose to
keep Trump, 77, on her state’s GOP primary ballot.

The Trump campaign praised the Michigan high court’s decision but
attacked the four Colorado justices who booted him along with Bellows,
with a spokesman calling her a “hyper-partisan Biden-supporting
Democrat.”

Attorneys for the president had already sought to head off Bellows by
pointing to past social media posts as proof she “concluded that
President Trump engaged in insurrection” and should disqualify herself
from deciding his eligibility.

The Trump campaign promised to “quickly file a legal objection in state
court to prevent this atrocious decision in Maine from taking effect,”
but has yet to petition the US Supreme Court over the Colorado ruling.

Colorado and California will host their primary elections on March 5,
the day after the former president is scheduled to appear in Washington,
DC, federal court for the start of his trial related to the events of
Jan. 6, 2021.

Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump in August with four counts:
alleged conspiracy to defraud the US government, conspiracy to obstruct
an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an
official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

However, that case has stalled after US District Judge Tanya Chutkan
rejected a motion from Trump’s defense team that argued his attempts to
challenge 2020 election results were protected by presidential immunity.

Smith asked the Supreme Court this month to step in and issue an
expedited ruling on the motion, which was denied, all but guaranteeing
that Trump’s trial will be delayed.

https://nypost.com/2023/12/29/news/maine-democrat-rep-jared-golden-blasts
-move-to-pull-trump-off-primary-ballot/