Colorado Republican Party Chair Dave Williams told Newsmax on Friday that efforts to keep former President Donald Trump off the ballot in 2024 using the 14th Amendment is “laughable” but need to be watched.
“I think this is outrageous,” Williams said on Newsmax’s “National Report.” “It’s undemocratic, and it’s apparent that there are a number of folks, especially in the Democrat Party, that are concerned that Donald Trump is a viable candidate, that Joe Biden is going to lose, and so they are engaging in election interference, and they have solicited the help of supposed Republicans — phony conservatives — to help keep a qualified candidate off the ballot.”
“It’s not constitutional, it’s not democratic, and the Republican Party is not going to stand for it,” he added.
On Wednesday, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a lawsuit to prevent Trump, the current frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, from appearing on the Colorado ballot.
The group claims that the former president’s alleged involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol building bars him from the ballot.
“Having disqualified himself from public office by violating Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, Donald Trump must be removed from the ballot, according to a lawsuit filed today by six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters including former state, federal and local officials,” CREW’s website states.
Frequently called the Disqualification Clause, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibits any person from holding state or federal office who took an “oath … to support the Constitution of the United States” and has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the Capitol attack and called the move to disqualify him using the 14th Amendment “election interference.”
Williams called the justification to boot Trump from the ballot “beyond laughable” but noted that “it is a danger.”
“It’s a serious problem because, if they are successful here in Colorado, then other secretaries of state across the country are going to do what they can to kick Donald Trump off the ballot because they’re afraid he’s going to get back into the White House,” he said. “We can’t stand for that. We can’t allow for that and we’re going to do whatever we can on our part, through litigation or other means, to make sure that they don’t interfere with our nomination process.”
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Nicole Wells ✉
Nicole Wells, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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