During a discussion with MSNBC host Ali Velshi, Colorado’s Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold left open the option of barring former President Donald Trump from her state’s ballots in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
Colorado is where Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), joining with local voters, recently filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s eligibility on the basis of the much discussed 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That portion of the nation’s guiding document includes restrictions on running for office for those who previously took an oath to defend the Constitution and then engaged in some way in insurrection or provided aid and comfort to enemies of the United States, though some of these specific concepts may require further elucidation for the highest degree of precision.
“Donald Trump incited an insurrection, and there are big Constitutional questions around that provision as to whether he is disqualified from the Colorado ballot,” Griswold said. “So we’ll see this litigation through, and ultimately I think it’s important for a court to weigh in to provide guidance.”
Griswold was consistently deferential to the courts, though she also rebuked the present lines of argument from the former president himself that he’s become the victim with the Colorado lawsuit of what’s just election interference, considering his ongoing campaign for president, which is expected to — absent dramatic intervention — take him to the general election again. “To say that a section of the 14th Amendment is election interference and considering how to uphold the Constitution is election interference is un-American,” Griswold added. “We know that the former president is a liar who will do everything he can to hold onto power.”
Another Secretary of State who spoke roughly similarly is Michigan’s Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat. Watch Griswold’s remarks on MSNBC below:
