Biden Reacts to Colorado Supreme Court Trump Ruling

President Joe Biden walks to greet Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, left, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu as he arrives at Boston Logan International Airport to attend several campaign fundraisers, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023, in Boston. With an election year around the corner, Biden is accelerating his fundraising to prepare for an astronomically expensive campaign. AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File

President Joe Biden declined to comment on the Colorado Supreme Court decision to bar former President Donald Trump from the state’s primary ballot, but he told reporters on Wednesday there was “no question” that the former president was an insurrectionist.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had said “no comment” to a direct question about whether the president believes President Trump to be an “insurrectionist” earlier that day on Airforce One.

“He’s not gonna get into a legal process here. I’m not going to speak to the decision that Colorado has made. No comment,” she said.

As President Biden headed to his car, he told reporters, “I’m not going to comment on a court case.”

“That’s all for the courts, that’s all I’m going to say,” he added.

“Is Trump an insurrection, sir?” one reporter called out, prompting President Biden to walk closer to the cameras, asking the reporter to repeat the question.

“I think that’s certainly self-evident, you saw it all,” President Biden answered.

“Now, whether the 14th Amendment applies, I'll let the court make that decision,” he added. “But he certainly supported insurrection, no question about it, none, zero. And he seems to be doubling down on everything.”

Tuesday night, the Colorado Supreme Court reversed an order by a lower court to put President Trump on the ballot, while affirming the district court ruling that the former president engaged in “insurrection.”

“We conclude that because President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Secretary to list President Trump as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot,” the order reads.

Rivals Criticize Ruling

President Trump’s other political rivals have been critical of the Colorado Supreme Court ruling, even as some of them say he should not be reelected.

Vivek Ramaswamy went so far as to pledge to remove himself from the Colorado primary ballot in protest, and urged other candidates to do the same.

Candidates Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, and Chris Christie denounced the Colorado decision without making such a pledge.

“I will tell you that I don’t think Donald Trump needs to be president. I think I need to be president. I think that’s good for the country,” Ms. Haely said at an Iowa campaign event. “But I will beat him fair and square. We don’t need to have judges making these decisions, we need voters to make these decisions.”

“I want to see this in the hands of the voters,” she added. “We’re going to win this the right way, we’re going to do what we need to do, but the last thing we want is judges telling us who can and can’t be on the ballot.”

Mr. Christie answered similarly at a campaign event.

“What I will say is I do not believe Donald Trump should be prevented from being president of the United States by any court,” he said. “I think he should be prevented from being the president of the United States by the voters of this country.”

Mr. DeSantis called the ruling an abuse of power and called on the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the decision.

“There was no trial on any of this,” he said at a campaign event.

He also posted on X, “The Left invokes ‘democracy’ to justify its use of power, even if it means abusing judicial power to remove a candidate from the ballot based on spurious legal grounds. SCOTUS should reverse.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as an independent candidate for president, also blasted the decision on social media.

“I’m not a Trump supporter (if I were, I wouldn’t be running against him!) But I want to beat him in a fair election, not because he was kicked off the ballot. Let the voters choose, not the courts!”

Appeal Coming

The U.S. Supreme Court does not need to act in order to reverse the Colorado Supreme Court ruling.

In an unusual move, the Colorado Supreme Court put a stay on its order pending any appeal action by Jan. 4, fully expecting President Trump to appeal to the high court to extend the stay beyond Jan. 4.

Spokespersons for President Trump have already announced an appeal is coming, and a petition for immediate review will be filed in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Colorado’s deadline to certify primary ballots is Jan. 5, and unless the U.S. Supreme Court decides that it will order the secretary of state to remove President Trump from the ballot by then, the Colorado Supreme Court explained in its order that President Trump would then have to remain.