Trump’s competitors for the GOP nomination rallied behind the former president Tuesday night after the Colorado Supreme Court removed him from the state’s 2024 ballot.
While they want to beat Trump at the ballot box, the former president’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination don’t want him off the ballot.
The divided court ruled that Trump was ineligible to run for president under the insurrection clause of the US Constitution, arguing that his actions fueled the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by right-wing protesters aimed at disrupting the President’s confirmation by Congress. Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
TRUMP CAMPAIGN EXPLODES COLORADO SUPREME COURT’S DECISION TARGETING HIM ON THAT STATE’S BALLOT
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump attends a campaign event in Waterloo, Iowa, on December 19. (REUTERS/Scott Morgan)
The decision comes as Trump and three of his rivals – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and multi-millionaire biotech entrepreneur and first-time candidate Vivek Ramaswamy – campaigned in Iowa with less than four weeks remaining until state caucuses tip the GOP presidential nominating calendar.
“The Left invokes ‘democracy’ to justify its exercise of power, even if it means abusing judicial power to remove a candidate from the ballot based on spurious legal grounds. Must be reversed the SCOTUS,” DeSantis wrote in a social media posting as he attacked what he viewed as judicial overreach.
WHAT CRITICS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE COLORADO SUPREME COURT RULING
Haley told reporters that “we don’t need to have judges making these decisions. We need voters to make these decisions. So I want to see it in the hands of the voters. We’re going to win this in the right way.”
Ramaswamy, who has been Trump’s biggest defender in the winnowed down field of remaining rivals for the nomination, has vowed to withdraw his name from the Colorado primary ballot and encouraged his opponents to do the same.
“This is what an *actual* attack on democracy looks like: in an un-American, unconstitutional, and *unprecedented decision, a cabal of Democrat judges bans Trump from the ballot in Colorado, ” he charged. “After trying every trick in the book to get President Trump out of the running in this election, the bipartisan Establishment is now implementing a new tactic to prevent him from taking office again.”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy stand at their podiums before the fourth Republican candidates’ debate in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Dec. (REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer)
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Trump’s most vocal opponent in the GOP presidential nomination field, campaigned in New Hampshire on Tuesday. The Granite State holds the first primary and second general contest after Iowa on the Republican calendar.
Christie called the Colorado ruling “probably premature” because the former president has not yet been tried for inciting the attack on the Capitol.
“I don’t believe that Donald Trump should be prevented from being President of the United States by any court. I think he should be prevented from being President of the United States by the voters of this country,” Christie emphasized.
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Trump is the leading front-runner for the Republican nomination as he runs for the presidency for a third consecutive term.
Trump made history earlier this year as the first former or current president to be indicted for a crime, but his four indictments — including in federal court in Washington, DC, and in Fulton County court in Georgia in charges that he tried to reverse his 2020 presidential election loss – only strengthened his support among Republican voters.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more in our Fox News Digital election hub.
