The second state to disqualify former President Donald Trump due to his involvement in the January 2021 attack on the US Capitol was Maine, which on Thursday prevented him from competing in the Republican presidential primary.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows of Maine, who oversees elections, ruled in favor of the individuals who argued that Trump ought to be prohibited by the constitution from running for office again after attempting to rig the 2020 election.
The attack on January 6 “occurred at the behest of, and with the knowledge and support of, the outgoing President,” Bellows stated in her conclusion.
“The US Constitution does not tolerate an assault on the foundations of our government and (Maine law) requires me to act in response,” read the decision, which came in response to challenges filed by a handful of Maine voters.
In a decision that will undoubtedly be contested in the US Supreme Court, Maine has joined Colorado, where the state supreme court declared Trump unfit for the presidency earlier this month.
Bellows said that she was delaying the implementation of her decision while Trump filed an appeal with the court.
The rulings in both states cited the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which prohibits anybody who has pledged to defend the nation but then participates in insurrection from holding public office.
“I do not reach this conclusion lightly,” wrote Bellows, a Democrat. “I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the 14th Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”
Defying pressure from fellow Democrats, California’s top election official later on Thursday refused to take Trump off the state’s presidential primary ballot.
‘Attempted theft of an election’
Bellows’s judgment was swiftly condemned by Trump’s campaign as “virulent leftist and hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat” and as “attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter.”
Campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement, “These partisan election interference efforts are a hostile assault on American democracy,” charging Democrats and President Joe Biden with “relying on the force of government institutions to protect their grip on power.”
Cheung said Trump would appeal the decision.
Fellow Republicans jumped to Trump’s defense, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who is also seeking the party’s nomination.
“It opens up Pandora’s Box. Can you have a Republican Secretary of State disqualify Biden from the ballot?” he said.
Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine agreed.
“Maine voters should decide who wins the election – not a Secretary of State chosen by the Legislature,” she wrote on social media platform X.
A Democratic representative from Maine, Jared Golden, also said Trump should be on the 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,” Golden wrote on X. “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.”
Super Tuesday
The Maine choice is made when Trump is still the front-runner among Republicans to compete against Biden in the following year’s election.
Polls show that the two are tied for first place, and in recent weeks, Biden has intensified his criticism on his predecessor by claiming that Trump “certainly supported an insurrection.” There is not a single doubt, not even one.
At a recent campaign reception, Biden stated, “Our democracy is the greatest threat that Trump poses.”Because all is lost if we lose.
He said that Trump was “sitting there, watching it unfold on TV as a mob attacked the Capitol” during the Republican Party’s January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol building, which was intended to reverse Trump’s defeat by Biden.
The Republican former president who was twice impeached persists in asserting, without providing evidence, that he is the legitimate victor of the 2020 election.
In addition to facing racketeering charges in Georgia for allegedly plotting to manipulate the election results in the southern state following his defeat, he is set to go on trial in Washington in March on allegations of conspiring to reverse the election results.
March 5, sometimes referred to as “Super Tuesday,” is when voters in over a dozen states, including populated California and Texas, head to the polls for the nomination contests in Maine and Colorado.
Similar challenges have been filed in other states as well. Courts in Minnesota and Michigan recently ruled that Trump should stay on the ballot in those states. Another ruling is soon expected in Oregon.