Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) responded to the recent decisions of two states to remove former President Donald Trump from their 2024 ballots by saying that voters should decide instead.
In an interview with local station WCVB-TV, Ms. Warren said she believes the former president “participated in an insurrection,” but she also expressed caution. President Trump has not been charged with or convicted of attempting to carry out an insurrection, although Maine’s secretary of state and the Colorado Supreme Court said otherwise and removed him from the two states’ respective ballots last month.
Late last week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review an appeal from President Trump concerning the Colorado court’s ruling, with arguments scheduled to be heard in February. His legal team has also filed an appeal against the decision in Maine.
Last month, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, and Colorado Supreme Court judges claimed that President Trump’s actions following the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021, Capitol breach constituted ‘engagement in insurrection.’ They cited this as justification for barring him from appearing on the ballot, based on the 14th Amendment’s Section 3.
The decisions to block President Trump from ballots in Maine and Colorado have been stayed in those states while the appeals process plays out.
The two cases are among dozens of similar legal challenges in other states seeking to disqualify the former president. However, courts in a number of those states have dismissed the challenges in recent weeks.
In a similar move, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, released a statement last month that echoed Ms. Warren’s concerns, saying that “in California, we defeat candidates at the polls. Everything else is a political distraction.” It came after Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a Democrat running for governor in 2026, issued a letter asking Secretary of State Shirley Weber to explore legal options to bar President Trump from California’s ballots.
Several other top Democrats and Republicans who oppose the former president have signaled they are concerned with the attempts to remove him from the ballot.
‘Big Trouble’
Over the past weekend, President Trump warned that the Supreme Court would cause “big trouble” should the justices render an unfavorable decision on the ballot question.In a rally in Iowa, the former president told a crowd that he hopes “we get fair treatment because if we don’t, our country’s in big, big trouble. Does everybody understand what I’m saying?”
The former president’s attorney and spokeswoman, Alina Habba, has said she believes the Supreme Court will “step up” to reject the ballot decisions because they are “pro-law” and “pro-fairness.”
“I think it should be a slam dunk in the Supreme Court. I have faith in them,” Ms. Habba told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “You know, people like Kavanaugh, who the president fought for, who the president went through how to get into place, he’ll step up.”
The issue of whether President Trump can be on the ballot is not the only matter related to the former president or Jan. 6 that has reached the high court. The justices last month declined to fast-track a request from special counsel Jack Smith to take up and rule on the former president’s claims that he is immune from prosecution. However, the issue could be back before the court soon, depending on the ruling of a Washington-based appeals court.
Mr. Smith has charged the former president in Florida and Washington in two separate cases, one involving whether he allegedly mishandled classified documents and the other about his activity after the 2020 election. President Trump also faces state charges in New York and Georgia. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges across the four cases.
