Republicans Are Tripping Over Each Other to Defend Trump After Colorado Ruling
Republicans are up in arms over Donald Trump getting banned from the Colorado presidential ballot, a sign of how much power he still has in the party.
The Colorado Supreme Court issued a historic decision late Tuesday, ruling 4–3 that Trump had engaged in the January 6 insurrection and was therefore disqualified from running for office again. Republicans have, predictably, fallen in line behind him.
Multiple lawmakers accused the state’s Supreme Court of election interference and voter suppression—which is pretty ironic given that the GOP opposes laws that would expand voter rights and 147 of its members in Congress voted to overturn the 2020 election results.
House Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed the ruling as “nothing but a thinly veiled partisan attack,” while Representative Elise Stefanik predicted the decision will “backfire and further strengthen President Trump’s winning campaign to Save America.”
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is not-so-secretly gunning to be Trump’s vice presidential pick, demanded the U.S. Supreme Court take up the case.
“The Democrats and 4 Colorado judges just stole the election away from the people of Colorado and robbed them of their right to vote for President Trump,” she said on X, formerly Twitter.
“This is an unprecedented First amendment violation that must be struck down by the SCOTUS.”
Senator Mike Lee called the ruling “lawless thuggery masquerading as jurisprudence” and then shared a very strange animation of dancing bananas, implying the U.S. is a “banana republic.”
This is the kind of wake-up call we should not ignore.
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) December 20, 2023
Nor is this just another bad, politically motivated ruling.
This is lawless thuggery masquerading as jurisprudence. https://t.co/bZOGsSWHZ9 pic.twitter.com/z9F6B1S7Aj
“This irresponsible ruling will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and our legal team looks forward to helping fight for a victory,” Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel wrote on X.
Trump’s Republican primary opponents also slammed the ruling, instead of viewing it as an opportunity to actually beat the current front-runner. Nikki Haley said the decision should have been left to the voters instead of the judicial system, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis accused Democrats of “abusing judicial power.”
Even Chris Christie, whose campaign platform is basically that he’s a Trump hater, said the ruling was “premature” because Trump hasn’t yet been tried for inciting insurrection. He also said the voters, not the courts, should decide whether Trump becomes president.
Vivek Ramaswamy, whose campaign is but a series of trolly stunts, pledged in a social media screed to withdraw his name from the Colorado ballot if Trump isn’t on it, which sounds more like a massive self-own than a measured protest.