‘Very smart people’: Donald Trump reacts to huge election decision

The US Supreme Court has made a huge call that could have severe consequences for Donald Trump – but he doesn’t appear fazed.

The court agreed on Friday to hear the former’s appeal of a ruling by Colorado’s highest court that would keep him off the presidential primary ballot in the western state.

The Supreme Court, which includes three justices appointed by the former president, said it would hear oral arguments in the high-stakes election case on February 8.

The Colorado Supreme Court barred Trump last month from appearing on the Republican presidential primary ballot in the state because of his role in the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol by his supporters.

Lawyers for Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, urged the US Supreme Court earlier this week to hear the case and “summarily reverse the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling.” 

They said the Colorado ruling, “if allowed to stand, will mark the first time in the history of the United States that the judiciary has prevented voters from casting ballots for the leading major-party presidential candidate.

“The question of eligibility to serve as President of the United States is properly reserved for Congress, not the state courts, to consider and decide,” they added.

Responding to the decision, Trump praised the three justices he nominated to the Supreme Court. 
 

“I fought really hard to get three very, very good people, and they’re great people, very smart people, and I just hope that they’re going to be fair,” he said at a campaign rally in Iowa.

“I just hope we get fair treatment. Because if we don’t, our country’s in big, big trouble.” 

Earlier on Friday, a Trump campaign spokesman said they were “confident” the Supreme Court will “affirm the civil rights of President Trump, and the voting rights of all Americans”.

“We welcome a fair hearing at the Supreme Court to argue against the bad-faith, election-interfering, voter-suppressing, Democrat-backed and Biden-led, 14th Amendment abusing decision to remove President Trump’s name from the 2024 ballot in the state of Colorado,” spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.
 

The 77-year-old Trump has also lodged an appeal against a ruling by the top election official in Maine that would keep him off the primary ballot in the northeastern state.

Trump’s attorneys urged the Maine Superior Court to toss out the ruling by Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, calling her a “biased decision-maker” who “acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner.” 

The Colorado Supreme Court and Maine secretary of state both ruled that Trump is ineligible to appear on the primary ballot because of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

Section Three of the 14th Amendment bars people from holding public office if they engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” after once pledging to support and defend the Constitution.

The amendment, ratified in 1868 after the US Civil War, was aimed at preventing supporters of the slave-holding Confederacy from being elected to Congress or from holding federal positions.

Similar 14th Amendment challenges to Trump’s eligibility have been filed in other states as well. Courts in Minnesota and Michigan recently ruled that Trump should stay on the ballot in those states.

Separately, the former president is scheduled to go on trial in Washington in March for conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden.

He also faces racketeering charges in Georgia for allegedly conspiring to up-end the election results in the southern state.
 

President Biden calls Trump a “loser”

The Supreme Court’s decision comes as President Joe Biden kicked off his bid for re-election on Friday by calling Trump a “loser”. 

Speaking at Valley Forge outside Philadelphia, Biden said: “Let’s be clear about the 2020 election: Trump exhausted every legal avenue available to him to overturn the outcome — every one.”

“But the legal path just took Trump back to the truth that I’d won the election and he was a loser,” he said.
 

The president’s choice of the word “loser” was likely deliberate, due to its often-reported effect on the image-conscious Trump, a former reality TV host and real estate developer.

“Well, knowing how his mind works, he had one act left, one desperate act available to him: the violence of January the 6th,” Biden said, “and since that day, more than 1,200 people have been charged for their assault on the Capitol, nearly 900 of them have been convicted or pleaded guilty.”

Collectively to date, they have been sentenced to more than 840 years in prison.”

No evidence has emerged that Trump had advance knowledge of plans for violence by some of his supporters during the congressional count of the Electoral College results.

- With AFP and New York Post