Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty
I joined BBC Bristol on Wednesday to analyze how and why the Colorado Supreme Court has barred Donald Trump from the Republican primary ballot in the 2024 US Presidential election.
Listen to Discussion from 1:23.33
I explain the Constitutional position and how, according to the court’s ruling, Trump violated the 14th Amendment with his support of insurrection before and during the Capitol Attack of January 6, 2021.
I also deal with the inevitable question of the political significance by asking if the US media will continue, wittingly or unwittingly, to tilt the playing field in Trump’s favor by giving him almost-exclusive attention — and by recycling his disinformation and falsehoods.
See also Trump Disqualified from 2024 Ballot by Colorado Supreme Court
[Editor’s Note: Trump was impeached in January 2021. He was acquitted because of the Republican majority in the US Senate, in a political rather than a legal process.]
Trump makes fresh plea to toss 2020 election case in late-night appeal filing:: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-supreme-court-colorado-biden-latest-b2469004.html
“Mr Trump’s lawyers cited historical precedent and mentioned Congress’s impeachment acquittal as evidence he did not commit a crime.”
[Editor’s Note: This is nonsense from the first sentence. As the US Senate is a political and not a judicial body, it is no authority to “criminally prosecute” a President. Instead, it is the judicial system that is the authority for criminal prosecution.]
The editor of this site fails to appreciate that trial by Senate is the only appropriate means of criminally prosecuting a president because his actions are all inherently political, including when he perjures himself over illicit sexual relations with an intern. The Constitution of the United States (Article 1, Section 3 Clause 7) makes it clear that, “Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.” In other words, if a President is is convicted on impeachment, that person is immediately removed from office and may be barred from holding any appointed federal executive office in the future. This is purely a political remedy, but the convicted person remains liable to trial and punishment in the courts for civil and criminal charges.
[Editor’s Note: Commenter is using undated — and outdated — figures from one think tank. US GDP rose 4.9% in the third quarter of 2023. It is forecast by the Federal Reserve and by leading economic institutions to rise by about 2% in 2024.]
Seriously, Scott, “best president for legislation since the 1960s”? Booming economy?
“While we forecast that real GDP will grow by 2.4% in 2023, we expect it to slow to 0.9% in 2024.”
Most analysts predict negative growth for at least one quarter next year: https://www.conference-board.org/research/us-forecast
[Editor’s Note: To distort the money.com article, the commenter overlooks the introduction:
“In early 2023, with high inflation and rising mortgage rates, there was all but a consensus that the United States would experience a recession by the end of the year. But the the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Business Cycle Dating Committee, which officially dates recessions in the U.S., never declared one.
The economy has been strengthening instead; gross domestic product rose by 2.1% in the second quarter and an estimated 4.9% in the third. Unemployment data has come in favorable, too: The unemployment rate was below 4% in October, and the U.S. added 150,000 jobs that month.”]
Another source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ankitmishra/2023/12/18/leading-experts-weigh-in-on-growing-the-us-economy-in-2024/
“U.S. economic growth is projected to be 2.4% in 2023 and 1.5% in 2024. These figures are below the G20 averages of 3.1% for 2023 and 2.8% for 2024, but above the OECD averages of 1.7% and 1.4% for the same years.
Some analysts are warning about a “mild recession” in 2024: https://money.com/recession-predictions-2024-economists/
[Editor’s Note: A dissenting opinion from a columnist in Texas over the Colorado Supreme Court decision]
More on Section 5 of the 14th amendment: https://texasinsider.org/articles/colorados-disqualification-of-trump-violates-the-fourteenth-amendment
“Colorado’s Supreme Court erroneously held itself possessed of jurisdiction and Trump disqualified to run for elective office. The United States Supreme Court should swiftly overrule that decision. It should make clear to all states that they do not have jurisdiction to construe and execute Section 3, a function reserved to the U.S. Congress by Section 5…Under Section 5, Congress alone has the authority to enforce the amendment through appropriate legislation, not the states and not state courts. Under Section 3, President Trump cannot be denied his place on the ballot unless he “engage[d] in insurrection or rebellion against” the United States in a manner analogous to the Confederates who took up arms to overthrow and defeat the United States….Section 3 reaches those who gave “aid and comfort to the enemies” of the United States. An enemy is not merely a protestor but those at war with and who attempt to overthrow the United States (akin to the CSA and its officers). …President Trump did not give aid and comfort to any enemy of the United States. He did not give aid and comfort to individuals who committed violence, property destruction, or even trespass. He urged protestors to be peaceable and law abiding.”
[Editor’s Note: This
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/22/trump-supreme-court-colorado
“Lawyers allow that the constitution does provide that insurrection is disqualifying but they ponder whether Trump – without a legal conviction – really fits that definition……. “I generally say that Trump attempted to secure an unelected second term in office,” wrote Jonathan Chait in New York magazine. “Insurrection,” he notes, may be useful shorthand for Trump’s role but it’s too imprecise to accomplish what the Colorado jurists say it does.”
The Guardian view on Trump’s legal woes in Colorado: he needs to be beaten politically: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/21/the-guardian-view-on-trumps-legal-woes-in-colorado-he-needs-to-be-beaten-politically
“Victory in November’s polls may not be enough to return Joe Biden to the White House: Mr Trump will fight defeat by any and every means. His backers will seek to bend the law to their will. Yet ultimately, he is a political phenomenon, and truly vanquishing him will require convincing sufficient voters, not a handful of justices. He must be beaten at the ballot box again.”
Iran summons Sweden’s envoy to protest life sentence for ex-official Hamid Nouri: https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/12/20/716730/Iran-summons-Sweden-s-envoy-to-protest-conviction-of-former-official
“It is regrettable that empty claims of individuals and a group that have committed the most heinous terrorist and anti-human acts against the people of Iran, Iraq and Europe for decades, is being cited in a court with minimum standards of fair proceedings, and legal mechanisms are allowed to be misused to pursue the political goals of toxic and destructive currents,” the statement cited the foreign ministry official as saying in the meeting.”
The testimony brought against Nouri [included] witnesses based at the MeK’s camp in Albania: https://women.ncr-iran.org/2021/11/10/swedish-court-trial-of-hamid-noury-moves-to-albania/
Nouri’s lawyer has informed he will now appeal to the Supreme Court of Sweden. I continue to be denied permission to speak on his behalf by the authorities.
[Editor’s Note: The outdated link is from August 2021. Since then, a large amount of evidence has been collected — much of it public — about the plans behind the gatherings on January 6 and the subsequent attack on the Capitol.
The commenter’s portrayal of Trump is egregiously wrong, as established by that evidence.]
FBI finds scant evidence U.S. Capitol attack was coordinated – sources:https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO00/20210902/114020/HMKP-117-GO00-20210902-SD004.pdf
An “insurrection” is a violent attempt to overthrow the government. All that Donald Trump did was exercise his first amendment right to lobby for Congress and his own VP not to certify the electoral college outcome or to include alternative electors in states where he suspected fraud had changed the outcome.