Maine Democrat criticizes Secretary of State for removing Trump from primary

One of Maine’s two Democratic House members criticized 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 don’t think he should be re-elected as president of the United States,” said Rep. Jared Golden. said in a statement on Thursday night.

“However, we are a nation of laws, so until he is convicted of the crime of insurrection, he should be allowed to be on the ballot,” added Golden, who represents Maine’s rural 2nd District, which Trump won by both. in 2016 as in 2016. 2020.

Golden was joined in criticizing Maine Secretary of State Shanna Bellows’ decision by Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who is part of the Democrats in the upper house of Congress.

Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) on Thursday criticized his state’s elections director for unilaterally removing former President Donald Trump from the 2024 Republican primary ballot. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

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

“While I respect the Secretary of State’s careful process…in the absence of a final judicial determination of a violation of the disqualification clause of the 14th Amendment, I believe the decision on whether Mr. Trump should be considered again for the presidency should rest with in the village. as expressed in free and fair elections,” King added. “This is the definitive control within our constitutional system.”

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

“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 said in a statement. X/@RepGolden

The poll 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.”

Their decision followed a Dec. 19 ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court to the same effect, in which both parties pointed to a ban in the 14th Amendment that prevents those who have “participated in the insurrection” from holding public office again.

Maine Democratic Secretary of State Shenna Bellows disqualified Trump from her state’s March 5 primary election, saying his efforts that led to the Capitol riot constituted an “insurrection.” AP

“I do not come to this conclusion lightly. “Democracy is sacred,” Bellows wrote in his 34-page decision. “I am aware that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of access to the polls based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

“However, I am also aware that no presidential candidate has participated in an insurrection before,” he said, calling the riot at the Capitol “tragic and unprecedented,” he added.

Bellows’ decision was supported by Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), who said in a statement: “The text of the Fourteenth Amendment is clear. No person who has participated in an insurrection against the government will be able to hold elected office again.

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Trump is the favorite for his party’s presidential nomination by more than 50 percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics average. REUTERS

“On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump incited a violent mob to prevent Congress from certifying the Electoral College and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election,” Pingree added. “Our Constitution is the very foundation 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’s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court after Colorado judges stayed their ruling until Jan. 4, allowing Trump to remain on the ballot. electoral until then.

Colorado must certify all presidential candidates nominated by political parties by Jan. 5, meaning the Supreme Court must decide whether to take up the state Republican Party’s appeal before then.

The poll aggregator also shows Trump ahead of President Biden in recent weeks by at least 2% nationally. AFP via Getty Images

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

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

Trump’s campaign praised the Michigan high court’s decision but attacked the four Colorado judges who ousted him along with Bellows, with a spokesperson calling her a “hyperpartisan Democrat who supports Biden.”

The president’s lawyers had already tried to deflect Bellows by pointing to previous social media posts as evidence that she “concluded that President Trump participated in an insurrection” and should disqualify herself from deciding her eligibility.

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The Trump campaign promised to “quickly file a legal challenge in state court to prevent this egregious decision in Maine from taking effect,” but has not yet filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court over the Colorado ruling.

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

Special prosecutor Jack Smith charged Trump in August with four counts: alleged conspiracy to defraud the United States government, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempted obstruction of an official proceeding, and human rights conspiracy.

However, that case stalled after U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected a motion by Trump’s defense team arguing that his attempts to challenge the 2020 election results were protected by presidential immunity.

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

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Source: vtt.edu.vn

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