Trump blocked from Maine's primary ballot by Secretary of State – The Independent

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Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows blocked Trump from the ballot over his role in the January 6 Capitol riots
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Maine’s top elections official has removed Donald Trump from 2024 primary election ballots, marking the second state to disqualify the former president in his bid for the White House for his involvement in the January 6 Capitol riots.
Shenna Bellows, the Maine Secretary of State, said in a filing on Thursday that the former president contributed to riots at the Capitol by using false claims of election fraud and then directing supporters there when Congress was set to certify the 2020 election results.
Mr Trump responded to the news in a campaign fundraising message to supporters, calling it a “tyrannical assault” on voting rights and labelling Ms Bellows a “dictator”.
Hours later, California’s Secretary of State Dr Shirley Weber declined to block Mr Trump from the state’s ballot, including his name on a list of certified 2024 candidates to county election officials.
This comes as Colorado Republicans are asking the US Supreme Court to reverse a historic state Supreme Court ruling that removed him from that state’s 2024 ballots after finding the former president is constitutionally ineligible from holding office for his role in engaging with the Capitol riot in 2021.
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie released an ad responding to calls for him to drop out of Republican presidential primary, saying he is the only candidate willing to publicly say what many Republicans say about former president Donald Trump privately.
Mr Christie released the ad to be played in New Hampshire just weeks before the first in the nation primary begins. The former governor has campaigned heavily in the Granite State before its 23 January contest.
Mr Christie responded to criticisms that he should get out of the race, since he is preventing the consolidation of non-Trump voters.
Here’s what he said:
The ad comes as Christie hopes to pull off a miracle in New Hampshire
Donald Trump’s campaign team physically flew “fake elector” ballots across the country to Washington DC in a last-ditch effort to overturn the 2020 election, a new report claims.
According to CNN, leaked witness testimony from a Michigan state investigation shows how Mr Trump’s aides scrambled to deliver the allegedly fraudulent paperwork to vice president Mike Pence before he could certify the election results.
The so-called “fake electors” plot hinged on the fact that American presidents are not directly elected by the people, but rather by 538 “electors” who are selected by their states based on the outcome of the vote.
Mr Trump’s team allegedly pressured state legislators to ignore the vote and choose their electors by fiat. When that did not work, they assembled their own group of electors with no legal standing and pushed vice president Mike Pence to accept it instead of the real ones.
Multiple people have been criminally charged for their involvement in this scheme, and one – pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro – has pled guilty to conspiring to file false documents.
Now, audio clips from Mr Chesebro’s testimony released by CNN appear to show that Mr Trump’s team went to the trouble of flying the fake electors’ paperwork across the country in order to get them in front of Mr Pence before the election result was certified.
Io Dodds explains what happened next
California’s secretary of state has declined to block Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 presidential primary ballot over his role in the January 6 Capitol riots.
Secretary of State Dr Shirley Weber certified the list of candidates on Thursday night and sent it to county election officials, ahead of the 5 March presidential primary election.
Rachel Sharp reports:
Just hours earlier, Maine became the second state to strike him from the ballot over his part in inciting the January 6 Capitol riots
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman unleashed his unfettered opinion of Democratic strategist James Carville, who has voiced doubt over President Joe Biden’s ability to win a second term.
Politico asked the Democratic lawmaker whether Mr Biden’s campaign should focus more on swing states.
The famously casual congressman quipped: “I don’t give anybody advice unless on fashion” – but then voiced confidence on Mr Biden’s 2024 odds.
“All I do know is that the president will win Pennsylvania. And I do believe if he wins Pennsylvania, and I believe he will, he will be a second-term president,” Fetterman added.
Kelly Rissman reports on what else Mr Fetterman had to say…
Last month, James Carville said that he was ‘very pessimistic’ about Biden’s chances of winning in 2024
Lawsuits challenging Donald Trump’s eligibility to appear on the 2024 presidential primary ballots have sprung up in several states.
Individuals and left-wing organisations have claimed that Mr Trump violated Section Three of the 14th Amendment – known as the insurrection clause – citing his involvement in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Section Three of the amendment prohibits those who take part in insurrections or aid enemies of the US government from taking office.
To date, such challenges have been brought in both federal district and state courts across at least 16 states.
So far only one state, Colorado, has removed Mr Trump from the ballot under the 14th Amendment. The state’s Supreme Court ruled on 19 December that the former president is ineligible to appear on the state ballot and cannot be considered an option for the White House.
While Mr Trump says he plans to appeal the Colorado decision, likely taking the case up to the US Supreme Court, he is also preparing for challenges, appeals and decisions in other states.
Ariana Baio takes a look at the other challenges to Mr Trump’s eligibility for the 2024 race.
Read the full article here
Donald Trump’s campaign team physically flew “fake elector” ballots across the country to Washington DC in a last-ditch effort to overturn the 2020 election, a new report claims.
According to CNN, leaked witness testimony from a Michigan state investigation shows how Mr Trump’s aides scrambled to deliver the allegedly fraudulent paperwork to vice president Mike Pence before he could certify the election results.
The so-called “fake electors” plot hinged on the fact that American presidents are not directly elected by the people, but rather by 538 “electors” who are selected by their states based on the outcome of the vote.
Mr Trump’s team allegedly pressured state legislators to ignore the vote and choose their electors by fiat. When that did not work, they assembled their own group of electors with no legal standing and pushed vice president Mike Pence to accept it instead of the real ones.
Io Dodds reports on the details of the plot…
Leaked witness testimony from pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro allegedly reveals how the former president’s aides scrambled to overturn the 2020 election
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is fundraising off the decision to remove him from the ballot in Maine over his role in the January 6 insurrection.
An email from Trump Save America with the subject line “Removed from the ballot in another state”, reads:
Patriot,
A Democrat Secretary of State and fierce ally of Crooked Joe Biden just REMOVED my name from the ballot in Maine.
There wasn’t even a TRIAL! She unilaterally ruled like a dictator to deprive citizens of their right to vote.
MY LAWYERS WILL IMMEDIATELY FIGHT THIS TYRANNICAL ASSAULT ON YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE. THIS CANNOT STAND.
WITH YOUR EMERGENCY SUPPORT, WE WILL WIN THIS FIGHT AND REMAIN ON THE BALLOT IN ALL 50 STATES.
Please make a contribution to join the fight to keep my name on the 2024 ballot and peacefully defend YOUR right to vote.
Maine has been a critical part in our path to 270 electoral votes.
So, Crooked Joe’s advisors are now systematically trying to disqualify me in the states that would get us to the 270 electoral votes needed to win back the White House.
The Democrats are trying to STEAL the 2024 election in broad daylight.
If we let them get away with it, the America you and I know and love will cease to exist.
In its place will be a Third World Dictatorship where your president is decided for you.
You have my word: I will not let left-wing judges STEAL the votes of a MAJORITY of Americans.
We will win this battle, we will win the 2024 election, and we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
If you’re doing poorly due to the very corrupt Democrats who would rather try and eliminate my name from the ballot than actually lift a finger to help our country, then please do not donate at this time. I mean it! We will win this epic battle for America and this time next year, we will be celebrating as our nation makes its glorious comeback.
Please make a contribution to join the fight to keep my name on the 2024 ballot and peacefully defend YOUR right to vote.
Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) opposes the decision to exclude Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot.
In a statement posted to X, she said: “Maine voters should decide who wins the election – not a Secretary of State chosen by the Legislature.
“The Secretary of State’s decision would deny thousands of Mainers the opportunity to vote for the candidate of their choice, and it should be overturned.”
Ms Collins was one of the few Republican senators who voted to impeach then-president Trump after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Given that the former president is being removed from the ballot for his role in the January 6 insurrection, the senator’s statement is not exactly consistent with what she said after she voted to remove him from office.
She said in early 2021: “This impeachment trial is not about any single word uttered by President Trump on January 6, 2021. It is instead about President Trump’s failure to obey the oath he swore on January 20, 2017. His actions to interfere with the peaceful transition of power — the hallmark of our Constitution and our American democracy — were an abuse of power and constitute grounds for conviction.”
Notably, after Mr Trump’s first impeachment in which Ms Collins voted to acquit him, she said that he had learned his lesson.
Donald Trump’s Republican rivals in the 2024 White House race have come out in support of the former president after he was struck from the ballot in Maine.
In a decision handed down on Thursday, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows blocked Mr Trump from appearing on the state ballot under the 14th Amendment, due to his role in inciting the January 6 Capitol riots.
Maine is now the second state to remove him from the ballot after Colorado’s Supreme Court issued a similar ruling earlier this month.
Rachel Sharp reports on how the rest of the GOP primary field reacted:
Vivek Ramaswamy has challenged the other candidates to withdraw from the ballot in states where Donald Trump is disqualified
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Former President Donald Trump speaks to the press as he arrives for his civil fraud trial in New York City on 17 October 2023
AFP via Getty Images
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