Democratic Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows on Thursday disqualified former President Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot, citing the rebellion clause of the 14th Amendment.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung blasted the decision, calling Bellows a “violent leftist” and a “hyperpartisan Biden-supporting Democrat,” in a statement to The Post.
He said the campaign will “immediately file a legal challenge in state court to prevent this draconian decision in Maine from taking effect.”
“I do not take this conclusion lightly. Democracy is sacred,” Bellows wrote in his 34-page decision on multiple complaints challenging 77-year-old Trump’s eligibility for the Maine primary based on his actions leading up to and during the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riots.
“I am aware that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of voting access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. However, I also realize that no presidential candidate has ever been involved in an insurgency,” he said, calling the riots at the Capitol “unprecedented and tragic.”
“It is an attack not only on the Capitol and government officials, but also an attack on the rule of law. The evidence here shows that it happened at the behest of, and with the knowledge and support of, the outgoing President,” Bellows said.
Trump was disqualified from the Maine vote after the secretary of state cited the Constitution’s rebellion clause. Reuters
“I conclude that Rosen and the Royal Challengers have met their burden … They have provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate the falsity of Mr. Trump’s declaration that he meets the qualifications for the presidency. Therefore, as required … I find Mr. Trump’s primary petition to be invalid,” he said.
Bellows noted that his decision will be stayed until the Maine Supreme Court rules on the Trump campaign’s expected appeal.
Maine’s Republican primary election will take place on March 5.
Bellows’ decision comes after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that Trump was ineligible on the same Fourteenth Amendment grounds.
Instead, the Michigan Supreme Court opposed the former president’s disqualification, arguing that the state’s secretary of state lacked the legal authority to remove a candidate nominated by a political party for a primary.
Unlike in Colorado and Michigan, Maine’s process for voting eligibility is first discussed by the secretary of state before the courts can get involved.
Attorneys for Trump unsuccessfully sought to disqualify Bellows from ruling on challenges to Trump’s vote eligibility, pointing to his past social media posts as evidence he “has concluded that President Trump is engaged in treason.”
For example, on Feb. 13. 2021, Bellows posted on Twitter that the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021 were a “rebellion” and an “illegal attempt to overturn the results of a free and fair election.”
“One year after a violent insurgency, it is important to do everything we can to protect our elections,” he said. write on January 6, 2022.
“Maine’s Secretary of State is a former ACLU attorney, a violent leftist and a deeply partisan Biden-supporting Democrat who has decided to interfere in the presidential election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden,” Cheung told The Post. “We are witnessing, in real time, an attempt to steal an election and disenfranchise the American voter.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows wrote “I am aware that no Secretary of State has ever denied a presidential candidate access to the ballot based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. However, I am also aware that no presidential candidate has ever been involved in insurrection.” AP
“Democrats in blue states are recklessly and unconstitutionally suspending the civil rights of American voters by attempting to summarily remove President Trump’s name from the ballot. Make no mistake, this partisan election meddling effort is a hostile attack on American democracy. Biden and the Democrats simply do not trust the American electorate in free and fair elections and now rely on the power of government institutions to protect their grip on power,” he added.
A Trump campaign spokeswoman argued that the various 14th Amendment challenges to Trump’s candidacy were “bad faith” and “false,” referring to court decisions in Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Arizona, Florida, Rhode Island and West Virginia.
“We know both the Constitution and the American people are on our side in this fight,” Cheung said. “President Trump’s dominating campaign has a commanding lead in the polls that has grown dramatically as Crooked Joe Biden’s presidency continues to fail.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
