Bombshell Colorado ruling has GOP candidates 'running interference for their biggest rival': report

When the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that former President Donald Trump is ineligible for the state's 2024 Republican presidential primary ballot, the other candidates were quick to rush to his defense.

The justices, in a 4-3 decision, ruled that he is disqualified from running for president under Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment. Section 3 states that an "officer" who has engaged in "insurrection" cannot run for office, and the justices believe he did that when he tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election results despite the fact that now-President Joe Biden clearly won.

In an article published on December 22, the Daily Beast's Jake Lahut lays out some reasons why the Colorado ruling has a down side for other Republicans seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

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"For Donald Trump's GOP challengers," Lahut explains, "the Colorado Supreme Court's decision on Tuesday, (December 19) to boot him from the state's primary election couldn't have come at a worse time. With just weeks to go until the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire primary, candidates like Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley — who is picking up late momentum — are now spending precious time running interference for their biggest rival."

Lahut continues, "Haley told voters in Iowa that night 'the last thing we want is judges telling us who can and can't be on the ballot.' DeSantis knocked the decision as straight out of a Democratic 'playbook' to 'give (President Joe) Biden or the Democrat or whoever the ability to skate through this thing.' Characteristically for a candidate who has run more as a MAGA enforcer than a serious candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy went as far as promising to remove himself from the Colorado ballot in solidarity with Trump, and called on the rest of the field to do the same. The Haley campaign would only confirm she has no plans to remove herself from the Colorado ballot."

The Colorado Supreme Court ruling, according to Lahut, puts the other candidates in a "tough position: defend Trump, or risk potentially alienating more voters in the party base who may not love the former president but hate the prosecutions against him."

A source described by Lahut as someone "close to" Haley's campaign, told the Daily Beast, "The only person who benefits from that ruling is Trump, and everyone else is just gonna have to wait for the news cycle to roll by and fight to get their message out…. It is a weird situation, but they should've all been prepared for this. Since 2016, Republican candidates have had to deal with Trump. It's always a battle between having to get your message out and dealing with whatever Trump is up to at the time."

READ MORE: George Conway tears apart 'logically weak' dissents in Colorado Supreme Court's Trump ruling

The Daily Beast's full report is available at this link (subscription required).