Donald Trump speaks following removal from Colorado presidential ballot | BBC News
BBC News- 715 views
- 20 Dec 2023
Former US President Donald Trump has said that he considers indictments against him "a badge of honour". Trump was speaking ...
Now we begin in the US and the State of Colorado, where its Supreme Court has ruled that Donald Trump is disqualified from holding office and is not eligible to appear on the state's Republican primary ballot next year. The ruling is based on a rarely used provision of the US Constitution, that Barr's officials have engaged in insurrection or rebellion from holding office. It says he's ineligible to appear in next year's ballot because of his role instigating violence on January the sixth of 2021, the day of the attack on the US Capitol building. This only applies to Colorado's Republican primary, but it could have wider implications for Mr. Trump as he attempts to regain the presidency. In the statement, the Trump campaign said the court had issued a completely flawed decision, adding they will swiftly file an appeal to the United States Supreme Court. Well, in a campaign speech, the former President said no one will ever silence him.
Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, Communists, and fascists indict me, I consider it actually a great badge of honor. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Because I'm being indicted for you. Never forget, our enemies want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedom. It's very simple. I'm not going to let them do it. They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you. And in the end, they're not after me, they're after you. I just happen to be standing in their way, and I always will stand in their way.
The claim was brought by a group of Colorado voters, as well as an advocacy group based in Washington. The lawsuit is viewed as a test case for a wider effort to disqualify the former President, who is currently leading in the opinion polls for the Republican primary. Mario Nicolai, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, gave his reaction to the ruling.
They're thrilled with the outcome. These six individuals, I cannot overstate how courageous they are to bring a lawsuit like this and to bring it out and basically say that the United States Constitution stands for the fact that this country is a rule of law country, and that's what they believed in. So our petitioners include six people. Four of them are Republicans, two of them are unaffiliated. Unaffiliated to vote in primaries in Colorado. But among the Republicans, we have our lead plaintiff, Normé Anderson, is a former state and House majority leader in Colorado. So she served as a Republican official and a high ranking official in our state. And she has been adamant that she does not think that he's qualified under the US Constitution to serve in the presidency again. We have a former chief of staff for a Republican governor. We have a conservative Republican columnist for the Denver Post. We just have a great group of people who basically said, look, we think this isour duty as citizens in this country to stand up for our Constitution and to say that when you cross the line to engaging in insurrection after taking an oath to protect that constitution, you're no longer eligible to hold office.
You're no longer eligible to run for office.