Trump Thanks Supreme Court For Letting Him Stay On Ballots In Wide-Ranging Speech
Trump called the ruling “extremely important” and said it would go “a long way toward bringing our country together,” calling it a “great day for liberty” in a speech from Mar-A-Lago Monday, less than three hours after the Supreme Court issued the 9-0 ruling.
“Essentially you cannot take somebody out of a race because an opponent would like to have it that way,” Trump said, alleging the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to kick him off the ballot was designed to help President Joe Biden’s chances of winning re-election.
Trump used the brief address to blast the prosecutors who have brought criminal and civil cases against him, along with the judges overseeing them, alleging “they’re all coordinated with the White House” (Trump’s prosecutions are overseen by state-level district attorneys and a federal prosecutor who was appointed to act independently of the Biden administration).
Addressing the Supreme Court's expected decision on whether he should be granted "presidential immunity" in his federal election subversion case, Trump said "a president should be free and clear and frankly celebrated for doing a good job, not indicted four times and not gone after on a civil basis."
The Supreme Court’s Monday opinion reverses the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling, and subsequent decisions in Maine and Illinois, that Trump should be prohibited from appearing on their ballots for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“I have great respect for the Supreme Court, and I just want to thank them for working so quickly, so diligently, so brilliantly,” he said. “They can go after me with votes, but they’re not going to go after me with that kind of lawsuit that takes somebody out of a race.”
TANGENT
Trump also veered away from the Supreme Court decision to attack Biden’s immigration policies, alleging there is a “new category” of “migrant crime” caused by migrants coming from “prisons, jails, mental institutions and insane asylums.” Trump hasn’t produced any evidence for his oft-repeated claim that migrants are systematically arriving in the U.S. from mental institutions, and studies show migrants don’t commit crime at a higher rate than U.S.-born citizens.
KEY BACKGROUND
The justices opined that states were not permitted to disqualify federal candidates from their state offices, and “especially the presidency.” The ruling was expected after justices, including the court’s liberal members, indicated in oral arguments last month they were unlikely to let individual states decide the fate of a presidential election. The ruling follows similar decisions from state courts, including in Minnesota and Michigan, that ruled Trump should be allowed to stay on their ballots.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
The Supreme Court is also expected to decide on the validity of Trump’s argument that he should be granted “absolute immunity” in his federal criminal case charging him with attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The Supreme Court said in February it will hear oral arguments in the case in April.
CHIEF CRITICS
Trump’s Republican allies in Congress praised the Monday ruling, with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) accusing the Colorado Supreme Court of “a purely partisan attack against the frontrunner for the Republican presidential primary,” he wrote on X. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) called the decision “a massive win for voters and a historic loss for leftist activist judges,” while Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) said the ruling was “a resounding rebuke of liberal activist judges attempting to interfere in the 2024 election” and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) accused “activist judges in Colorado and other liberal states” of believing “the American people should not have the right to vote for the presidential candidate of their choice.”
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