In a surprise decision released on Thursday afternoon, Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, ruled that former President Donald Trump is ineligible to run for the office again because of the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban.” Maine is the second state to attempt to exclude Trump from the ballot after Colorado’s Supreme Court voted to disqualify Trump from the ballot in that state. (Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold stated that Trump will have to remain on the ballot in Colorado until the U.S. Supreme Court rules — likely in Trump’s favor — on the matter.)
The Trump campaign surely had some inkling that Bellows was ready to hand down such a decision as on Wednesday Trump’s lawyers wrote a letter to Bellows asking her to disqualify herself based on past statements she had made about the events of January 6, 2021. Bellows has referred to the January 6 events as “an unlawful attempt to overthrow the results of a free and fair election,” and referred to Trump and his team as “insurrectionists.”
“I conclude … that the record establishes that Mr. Trump, over the course of several months and culminating on January 6, 2021, used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power,” Bellows explained. “I likewise conclude that Mr. Trump was aware of the likelihood for violence and at least initially supported its use given he both encouraged it with incendiary rhetoric and took no timely action to stop it.”
The fact that Trump literally told protesters to be peaceful and respect law enforcement several times on January 6 held no sway in Bellows’ eyes.
“Mr. Trump’s occasional requests that rioters be peaceful and support law enforcement do not immunize his actions,” Bellows said. “A brief call to obey the law does not erase conduct over the course of months, culminating in his speech on the Ellipse. The weight of the evidence makes clear that Mr. Trump was aware of the tinder laid by his multi-month effort to delegitimize a democratic election, and then chose to light a match.”
“I do not reach this conclusion lightly,” Bellows wrote in announcing Trump’s ineligibility. “Democracy is sacred.… I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”
Bellows went on: “The oath I swore to uphold the Constitution comes first above all, and my duty under Maine’s election laws, when presented with a Section 336 challenge, is to ensure that candidates who appear on the primary ballot are qualified for the office they seek.”
Trump allies went immediately into defense mode, with Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik issuing a statement saying, “Another day, another illegal and corrupt act by the desperate radical Democrats weaponizing government against President Trump, Joe Biden’s top political opponent. The far left Democrat Secretary of State just unilaterally removed President Trump off the ballot. This is election interference, voter suppression, and a blatant attack on democracy. The Supreme Court must overturn this unprecedented and unconstitutional action now.”
Even Trump’s primary opponent Ron DeSantis said that the decision “opens up Pandora’s Box. Can you have a Republican Secretary of State disqualify Biden from the ballot? Because he’s let in 8 million people illegally, a massive invasion.”
Fellow Trump opponent Vivek Ramaswamy repeated his vow to remove himself from the ballot of any state that will not allow a competitor on to the ballot.
“I will voluntarily as a Republican candidate remove myself from any GOP primary ballot where one of my competitors — Donald Trump included — is forcibly removed through this unconstitutional maneuver,” Ramaswamy said on Fox News. Ramaswamy challenged the other GOP candidates to fight the strategy to remove Trump by taking Maine out of the GOP primary process by making it a caucus state.
In the end, Stefanik and others who look at this new Democrat tactic of stomping their feet and not allowing people they don’t like to even be considered for president as the childish act that it is, will probably get their way. The Supreme Court will likely decide for all states whether Trump can be on the ballot.
However, if you’ve ever wondered just why the Democrats and their media accomplices insisted on incorrectly referring to the unrest at the Capitol on January 6 of 2021 as an “insurrection,” now you have your answer.
But, as The New American has pointed out before, there is no reasonable basis under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment for disallowing Donald Trump from running for president.
