Republicans Kick Trump Off Ballot In Maine

Thanks to the efforts of angry Republicans, the Secretary of State of Maine has decided that Donald Trump can NOT appear on the primary ballot in the state due to violating the Insurrection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Maine is now the second state to make this decision alongside Colorado, and both efforts were driven by Republicans. The Supreme Court will take up this issue sometime in the new year. Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

Listen to our videos in an audio format by subscribing to our podcast

Don't forget to like, comment, and share! And subscribe to stay connected!

Connect with Farron on Twitter

*This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos.

The state of Maine has become the most recent state along with Colorado, obviously, to kick Donald Trump off of their primary ballot for 2024. But even though everybody already knows that, there's some things about this that you may not know if you haven't dug deep into these stories. So let me explain to you what's happening here. First of all, you had Sheena Bellows, who is the Secretary of State of Maine. She is the one who ultimately made the decision to kick Donald Trump off the ballot. She is a Democrat. Okay? Fair enough. However, the push in Michigan to get Donald Trump kicked off the ballot was in fact initiated just like in Colorado by a group of Republicans. So it was Republicans who pushed for Trump to be kicked off the ballot. However, it was the Democrat who made the decision. Bellow's decision also had to be made before the courts in Maine were able to take it up as an issue.

So it still has to go through the Maine court system. And Bellow says that until it goes through the court system in the state of Maine, Trump is actually still on the ballot. She says that she will not enforce her decision until the courts actually give her permission to do it. Therefore, Trump is not actually at this moment kicked off the ballot in Michigan, as all the headlines would have you think he is likely to be, if the courts in Maine go the way that Bellows did and say yes, he violated Section three of the 14th Amendment by engaging or supporting an insurrection, just like in Colorado. But until that court decision comes down, Trump will remain on the ballot. Now, couple things I wanna reiterate here. In Colorado and in Maine, the push to remove Trump from the ballot was brought by Republicans. So all these Republicans out there saying that Democrats are kicking Trump off the ballot, that's not true.

Both pushes in both states were initiated by Republicans. Secondly, even if the main courts do decide that Trump can be kicked off the ballot, this ruling or or this decision technically only applies to the primary ballot. So Bellows would then have to make a second proclamation and remove him from the general election ballot if he becomes the nominee. So there's still a second part to it that would have to happen if the courts go that way. Third, and most important, it all depends on what the United States Supreme Court says. The US Supreme Court has now officially been asked to take up the Colorado case, uh, up until Friday. By the way, they had not officially been asked to do that. So, you know, we were all talking about, yeah, it's up to the Supreme Court. Nobody had filed the motion yet

Until Friday. So now it's been filed. Now the Supreme Court will make the decision on whether to take the case or just say, Nope, stick with what the lower courts, we're not gonna touch it, which is also an option. And if they do that, Trump's screwed. So ultimately it's gonna rest with the Supreme Court. 'cause whatever they decide with Colorado would also apply in Maine if they allow Trump to be kicked off the ballot. He's done in Maine, and he's done in Colorado, and he's probably gonna be done in Alaska because also on Friday, Alaska announced, you know what we're thinking about doing this too. So you could have three states where Trump is officially kicked off the ballot. Now, Minnesota, New Hampshire and California have all refused. They have been asked, they have, you know, some of them have had lawsuits to kick Trump off the ballot In those states, they've said no.

So some states have said no. Some states are saying yes. One state at least is like, eh, maybe. We'll, maybe we won't and we'll decide later, right, there's no rush. But ultimately 100% of it will come down to that Supreme Court ruling. And here's another little twist in things. If the Supreme Court says, yes, Trump can be kicked off the ballot. All those states that have rejected that argument, those lawsuits can be refiled with the Supreme Court's ruling.