5, March 2024
US Supreme Court rules Colorado cannot ban Trump from presidential ballot 0
The US Supreme Court has struck down efforts by individual states to disqualify Donald Trump from running for president using an anti-insurrection constitutional clause.
The unanimous ruling is specific to Colorado, but it also overrides challenges brought in other states.
Colorado had barred Mr Trump from its Republican primary, arguing he incited the 2021 Capitol riot.
The court ruled that only Congress, rather than the states, has that power.
The top court’s decision clears the way for Mr Trump to compete in the Colorado primary scheduled for Tuesday.
Mr Trump is the front-runner for the Republican nomination and looks likely to face a rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden in November’s general election.
On Monday, the ex-president immediately claimed victory following the ruling, taking to his Truth Social media platform to claim a “big win for America”. The message was followed by a fundraising email sent to supporters of his campaign.
Speaking from his estate in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, soon afterwards, he said that the decision was “very well crafted” and will “go a long way towards bringing our country together, which it needs”.
“You can’t take someone out of a race because an opponent would like it that way,” Mr Trump added.
Colorado’s Secretary of State, Jena Griswold, said that she was disappointed by the ruling and that “Colorado should be able to bar oath-breaking insurrections from our ballot”.
Additionally, the watchdog group that brought the case in Colorado, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), said in a statement that while the court “failed to meet the moment”, it is “still a win for democracy: Trump will go down in history as an insurrectionist”.
Maine and Illinois had followed Colorado in kicking Mr Trump off the ballot on similar grounds.
The efforts in both those states were put on hold while his challenge to the Colorado ruling was escalated to the Supreme Court.
“We conclude that states may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office,” the court’s opinion says. “But states have no power under the Constitution to enforce Sections 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the presidency.”
The nine justices ruled that only Congress can enforce the 14th Amendment’s provisions against federal officials and candidates.
Part of the Civil War-era amendment – Section 3 – bars federal, state and military officials who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the US from holding office again.
Groups including Free Speech For People had argued that the attempt to delay the peaceful transfer of power on 6 January 2021 matched the definition of insurrection outlined in the amendment.
One of the court’s justices, Amy Coney Barrett, wrote separately that the fact that all nine justices agreed on the outcome of the case is “the message that Americans should take home”.
Source: BBC
17, March 2024
Trump warns US voters of a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses presidential election 0
Former US president Donald Trump warned of a “bloodbath for the country” if he is not elected in November.
Donald Trump told a rally in Ohio on Saturday that November’s presidential election will be the “most important date” in US history, painting his campaign for the White House as a turning point for the country.
Days after securing his position as the presumptive Republican nominee, the former president also warned of a “bloodbath” if he is not elected – though it was not clear what he was referring to, with the remark coming in the middle of comments about threats to the US auto industry.
“The date – remember this, November 5 – I believe it’s going to be the most important date in the history of our country,” the 77-year-old told rally-goers in Vandalia, Ohio, repeating well-worn criticisms that his rival, President Joe Biden, is the “worst” president.
Criticising what he said were Chinese plans to build cars in Mexico and sell them to Americans, he stated: “We’re going to put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected.”
“Now if I don’t get elected it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole – that’s going to be the least of it, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it. But they’re not going to sell those cars.”
As Trump’s comment gained traction on social media, Biden’s campaign released a statement calling the Republican a “loser” at the ballot box in 2020 who then “doubles down on his threats of political violence.
“He wants another January 6 but the American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge,” the campaign said, referring to the deadly attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters in 2021.
Later, Biden spoke at a dinner in Washington, where he also warned of “an unprecedented moment in history.”
“Freedom is under assault… The lies about the 2020 election, the plot to overturn it, to embrace the Jan. 6 insurrection pose the greatest threat to our democracy since the American Civil War,” he said.
“In 2020, they failed, but … the threat remains.”
The 81-year-old, who has waved off concerns that he is too old for a second term, leavened his rhetoric with humor.
“One candidate’s too old and mentally unfit to be president,” he said of the presidential race. “The other guy’s me.”
Border issues
Earlier this month Trump and Biden each won enough delegates to clinch their party nominations in the 2024 presidential race, all but assuring a rematch and setting up one of the longest election campaigns in US history.
Among the issues Trump is campaigning on is sweeping reform of what he calls Biden’s “horror show” immigration policies, despite the ex-president successfully pressuring Republicans to block a bill in Congress that included the toughest border security measures in decades.
On Saturday he invoked the border again as he reached out to minorities who have traditionally voted Democrat.
He said Biden had “repeatedly stabbed African-American voters in the back” by granting work permits to “millions” of immigrants, warning that they and Hispanic Americans “are going to be the ones that suffer the most.”
For decades Ohio had been seen as a bellwether battleground state, though it has trended more strongly Republican since Trump’s White House win in 2016.
The rally came a day after Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, said he would not endorse his old boss for a second White House term.
Source: AFP