Illinois yesterday joined Colorado and Maine to become the third state determining that former President Donald Trump is disqualified from the ballot under an interpretation of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
An Illinois circuit court judge ruled that Trump was “disqualified by engaging in insurrection.”
The judge put the ruling on hold till March 1 to give Trump time to appeal to a higher court. Trump’s team said they will appeal the ruling.
“Today, an activist Democrat judge in Illinois summarily overruled the state’s board of elections and contradicted earlier decisions from dozens of other state and federal jurisdictions,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said.
“This is an unconstitutional ruling that we will quickly appeal.”
The challenge was brought by five Illinois voters, represented by the activist group “Free Speech for People.”
Earlier, the bipartisan Illinois State Board of Elections unanimously voted to keep President Trump on the ballot after determining that the board did not have the authority to analyze constitutional issues. The challenge to Trump’s eligibility was then appealed in circuit court.
The Supreme Court earlier this month heard argument in Trump’s appeal of the Colorado court decision to remove him from the ballot. The Supreme Court justices expressed skepticism about Colorado’s disqualification decision and legal experts expect the high court will find in Trump’s favor.
A ruling could come this Friday when the Supreme Court issues opinions.
—Catherine Yang
MCCONNELL TO RETIRE
It’s the end of an era as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced on Feb. 28 that he will step down as Senate Republican leader in November following a record 17-year career in the role.
McConnell noted the recent death of a sister-in-law and said it is time for a new generational leader.
“As I have been thinking about when I would deliver some news to the Senate, I always imagined a moment when I had total clarity and peace about the sunset of my work,” said McConnell on the Senate floor moments after the news broke. “A moment when I am certain I have helped preserve the ideals I so strongly believe. It arrived today.”
McConnell said he is staying on and is up for re-election in 2026, although it is publicly unknown if he will run.
McConnell has numerous accomplishments as Senate GOP leader.
Under McConnell, who’s been the Senate GOP leader since 2007, the GOP reshaped the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, leading to the overturning of major cases including Roe v. Wade.
McConnell also kept the late Antonin Scalia’s seat open following the justice’s 2016 death, blocking now-Attorney General Merrick Garland, who was nominated by President Barack Obama.
“Mitch has had a long and honorable tenure as the Republican leader. I am grateful for his service,“ Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told The Epoch Times. ”He made the decision that it was time to step down as leader, and I certainly respect his judgment in that regard.
“He has many legacies, but none is more consequential than confirming hundreds of principled constitutionalists to the federal judiciary.”
McConnell was also responsible for legislative accomplishments such as the 2017 tax cuts and reform.
The move to step down as leader comes as McConnell, 82, is the only member of GOP Congressional leadership to not endorse former President Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner. McConnell has had a tense relationship with Trump.
Prior to entering the Senate in 1985, McConnell, who survived polio and recently had a couple of freezing incidents over a several-week span, was the judge/executive of Jefferson County and served in the U.S. Department of Justice under President Gerald Ford.
Possible successors include Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.), Senate GOP Conference Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), and Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who is the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the fundraising arm of the Senate GOP.
—Jackson Richman
HUNT FOR HUNTER ENDS WITH DEFIANT TESTIMONY
The halls of Congress buzzed with anticipation on Feb. 28 as Hunter Biden was compelled to answer the questions of House impeachment investigators.
“I am here today to provide the committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business,” Hunter Biden said in his opening statement.
Praising President Joe Biden as a “loving and supportive parent,” he blasted the Republican-led inquiry as a “baseless and destructive political charade”—a message echoed by Democrats throughout the day.
“I believe, based on this first hour, that this whole thing really has been a tremendous waste of our legislative time and the people’s resources,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, told reporters when members broke for lunch.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) built upon those comments by accusing her Republican colleagues of behaving unprofessionally and abusing public resources on an “inappropriate expedition.”
But Republican members pushed back, defending the integrity of their investigation.
“Our committees have unearthed substantial evidence of President Biden and his family’s corruption,” Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) told reporters before the deposition.
“Biden family associates testified that Joe Biden was the brand,” he said. “President Biden has repeatedly lied to the American people that he’d never interacted with his son’s associates.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), meanwhile, said it was “a mirage” to think that the president’s son had legitimate business ventures abroad. “This was a bribe masquerading as an international business transaction, nothing more, nothing less.”
Democrats have frequently criticized the impeachment inquiry as baseless, holding that investigators have yet to establish a direct link tying President Biden to his family members’ business schemes.
But Gaetz said he didn’t think such a link was necessary to prove a crime was committed.
“I believe that you can bribe someone by paying their family members,” he said. “Like, I don’t get this construct that unless Joe Biden himself received cash that he somehow wasn’t involved in the bribery operation.
“Joe Biden was doing the bidding of Burisma, he was doing the bidding of Chinese communists, and his family was getting enriched as a consequence. To me, that’s a pretty strong case for bribery.”
The deposition capped off months of tense negotiations that almost culminated in a contempt of Congress citation after the younger Biden defied two subpoenas.
A transcript of his testimony is expected to be released over the next few days. A public hearing will eventually follow.
—Samantha Flom
SCOTUS TAKES (BUMP)STOCK OF GUN LAW
The Supreme Court seemed divided on Feb. 28 when it heard arguments as to whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) correctly said that the National Firearms Act, passed in 1934, prohibited bump stocks when it banned machine guns
ATF switched its position on non-mechanical bump stocks in 2018 after a mass shooting in Las Vegas. For years, it had issued guidance that federal law didn’t prohibit non-mechanical bump stocks, or those without springs, since they didn’t produce automatic fire.
The Second Amendment didn’t come up very much during oral argument in the case—Garland v. Cargill—as the Court was primarily focused on how ATF aligned with federal law.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett said she was sympathetic to the Biden administration’s argument that bump stocks functioned “like a machinegun” but questioned why Congress hadn’t more specifically addressed the technology. Justice Neil Gorsuch also asked why ATF acted instead of Congress.
Dianne Feinstein, a former gun control proponent in the U.S. Senate, was mentioned by the justices during oral argument. She previously opposed ATF’s prohibition, arguing that Congress should act instead and that ATF’s regulation would prompt litigation.
Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson both expressed doubt that the 1934 legislation didn’t intend to prohibit devices like bump stocks. “At some point,” Justice Kagan said, “you have to apply a little bit of common sense to the way you read a statute and understand that what this statute comprehends is a weapon that fires a multitude of shots with a single human action.”
Cargill is one of several gun-related cases the Supreme Court has decided to hear this term. It previously heard United States v. Rahimi, which questioned gun rights for domestic abusers, and is planning to hear National Rifle Association v. Vullo, which involves regulation and the First Amendment, in March.
—Sam Dorman
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- Trump visits Eagle Pass, Texas, to spotlight the worsening border crisis.
- Biden visits Brownsville, Texas, to meet with border agents and law enforcement and urge for the passage of the Senate border package.
- Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testifies before the House Armed Services Committee about his recent hospitalization.
Arab Americans in Michigan, turned off by President Joe Biden’s response to the Israel-Hamas conflict, could vote for former President Donald Trump, reports The Epoch Times’ Emel Akan from Dearborn.
Prominent scientists are challenging key data that goes against the popular climate change narrative, reports Alex Newman.
A camera was deliberately turned away from the DNC as there was the discovery of a pipe bomb shortly before the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, reports The Epoch Times’ Joe Hanneman.
The Supreme Court has agreed to take up Trump’s appeal of an appeals court decision denying his presidential immunity claim in the federal election case. This will mean that his trial in that case, which has been indefinitely postponed, will be pushed out even further down the line, as the federal court awaits the high court’s determination on the issue.
