Politics
Republicans To Consider Removing Biden From State Ballots
Republican leaders are considering the removal of President Joe Biden from state presidential ballots, a move that looks to mirror the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to disqualify Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 GOP primary ballot.
The decision, based on Trump’s alleged violation of the 14th Amendment due to his involvement in the January 6 Capitol breach has sparked a retaliatory stance among Republicans.
The Colorado Supreme Court’s 4-3 ruling against Trump has now led to calls from Republicans like Anthony Sabatini, a Congressional candidate in Florida, and Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, to remove Biden from their state ballots.
Lt. Governor Patrick, speaking to Fox News, suggested Biden’s removal from Texas’ 2024 ballot due to his administration’s handling of immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.
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“We believe in democracy in Texas, maybe we should take Joe Biden off the ballot in Texas for allowing 8 million people to cross the border since he’s been President, disrupting our state far more than anything anyone else has done in recent history,” Patrick said.
“We’ve filed another and passed another bill to deal with human smuggling because the Biden administration is doing nothing, Laura, as we all know.”
Fox News reported on the historic avalanche of crossings, over 12,600 in total comprised of 11,000 apprehensions and more than 1,600 encountered at ports of entry. Thousands more remain at a processing center in Del Rio, Texas following a surge of crossings at Eagle Pass. Detainment facilities are at more than 260% capacity.
“We know that hundreds of people on the terrorist watch list have been apprehended. That doesn’t count all the people we don’t catch. We know that sex offenders, rapists, murderers have crossed the border and Biden does nothing. He puts our lives at risk. They don’t care,” Patrick finished.
Republican candidate for Congress (FL-11), Anthony Sabatini, also called for Biden’s removal, tweeting, “REMOVE BIDEN FROM THE FLORIDA BALLOT NOW!”
REMOVE BIDEN FROM THE FLORIDA BALLOT NOW!
— Anthony Sabatini (@AnthonySabatini) December 19, 2023
Similarly, political commentators echoed the same sentiment for Biden’s removal in red states in response. The situation presents a complex and unprecedented scenario in American politics. Announced on Tuesday afternoon, the ban on Trump represented the first time a state supreme court has directly confronted and decided on the essential debates concerning Trump’s qualifications for future office.
If Colorado is taking Trump off the ballot, Florida and Texas should take Biden off the ballot
Allowing 8M+ illegal aliens into America is the greatest form of insurrection
See how slippery this slope gets?
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) December 20, 2023
Grounded in the insurrection clause of the U.S. Constitution, the court concluded that Trump is barred from the presidency under this clause. As a result, the Colorado secretary of state was instructed to remove Trump’s name from the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot.
The Denver District Court conducted a five-day trial and found “clear and convincing” evidence that President Trump engaged in insurrection as defined in Section Three. However, the court concluded that Section Three does not apply to the President, and thus denied the petition to keep President Trump off the presidential primary ballot.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three, making it a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Secretary to list him as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot.
However, the ruling is stayed until January 4, 2024, to maintain the status quo pending any review by the U.S. Supreme Court.