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WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that he’s “not an insurrectionist” in an apparent response to the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to remove him from the state’s 2024 primary election ballot, which President Joe Biden and others have commented on.
“I’m not an Insurrectionist (“PEACEFULLY & PATRIOTICALLY”), Crooked Joe Biden is!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
The Colorado high court on Tuesday barred Trump from appearing on the state’s primary ballot because of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, also known as the Constitution’s insurrectionist clause.
Section 3 of the Civil War-era 14th Amendment says: “No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States … who, having previously taken an oath … as an officer of the United States … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
A majority of the court argued that the former president did engage in an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
Trump’s Truth Social post alluded to a remark he made just before his supporters marched to the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” he said during his rally at the White House Ellipse that morning.
The Colorado Supreme Court has put its decision on hold until Jan. 4 to allow for appeals. The Trump campaign has signaled that the former president will file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
If the case is brought before the U.S. Supreme Court prior to early January, the state’s high court said the pause on its decision will remain in effect, meaning Colorado would have to include Trump’s name on the primary ballot unless the U.S. Supreme Court decides otherwise.
Many Republicans have denounced the ruling, and the Colorado GOP said that if it stands, the party would change from a primary to a caucus system next year.
The Colorado Supreme Court decision reversed a lower court’s ruling that said Trump had engaged in insurrection by inciting a riot on Jan. 6, 2021, but that presidents are not subject to the insurrectionist clause of the Constitution because they are not an “officer of the United States.”
Some constitutional scholars have debated whether the president is covered by Section 3 of the 14th Amendment because it doesn’t explicitly mention the president. A report from the Congressional Research Service, however, says that “it may be more likely that the office of the President is included as an office under the United States” and that the history of Section 3’s drafting suggests the president is covered.
Biden, meanwhile, believes that his predecessor supported an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, he told reporters Wednesday.
“Well I think certainly it’s self-evident,” Biden said. “You saw it all. Now whether the 14th Amendment applies, I’ll let the court make that decision. But he certainly supported an insurrection.”
“No question about it — none, zero. And he seems to be doubling down on everything,” the president added.
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