Colorado top court bars Trump from 2024 election
Former President Donald Trump is disqualified from serving as U.S. president and cannot appear on the primary ballot in Colorado because of his role in the 2021 Capitol attack, the state's top court ruled Tuesday (December 19), in a landmark decision that's likely to soon be challenged at the U.S. Supreme Court. - REUTERS
Transcript
00:00 Donald Trump has been disqualified from serving as US President and kicked out of the presidential
00:07 primary election in Colorado next year.
00:10 The state's highest court made the historic decision on Tuesday over the former president's
00:14 role in instigating violence against the government in the Capitol attack by his supporters on
00:20 January 6, 2021.
00:22 The 423 ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court was based on a rarely used provision of the
00:27 US Constitution.
00:29 Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars officials who have engaged in insurrection from holding
00:35 office.
00:36 Trump is now the first presidential candidate in history to be disqualified from the White
00:41 House under that rule.
00:42 The majority justices acknowledged the judgment was "uncharted territory" but said "we do
00:48 not reach these conclusions lightly."
00:51 Trump's campaign said they will appeal the ruling at the US Supreme Court, calling it
00:56 "flawed and undemocratic," while Trump accused the Democrats of election interference at
01:01 a campaign rally in Iowa.
01:03 Crooked Joe Biden and the far-left lunatics are desperate to stop us by any means necessary.
01:08 They're willing to violate the US Constitution at levels never seen before in order to win
01:13 this election.
01:15 The case was not brought forward by Biden but a group of Colorado voters backed by a
01:19 non-profit called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
01:24 In a statement, the non-profit said the court's decision is "not only historic and justified
01:30 but is necessary to protect the future of democracy in our country."
01:34 The lawsuit is seen as a test case for a wider effort to strike Trump off state ballots under
01:40 the 14th Amendment.
01:42 Tuesday's ruling overturned a lower court's judgment in Colorado that concluded Trump
01:47 did engage in insurrection but that, as president, Trump was not an "officer of the United States"
01:53 who could be disqualified under the provision.
01:56 It now sets the stage for the US Supreme Court to potentially consider whether he's eligible
02:01 across all 50 states to serve as president again.
02:05 Half of the judges that make up the top court's conservative majority are Trump appointees.
02:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]