Mehdi Hasan explains the fatal flaw in a popular argument against barring Trump from the ballot
Sen. Angus King (I-ME) on Friday argued Trump should not be removed from his state’s ballot one day after Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced he was disqualigied. In a statement, King said the question of Trump’s consideration for president “should rest with the people as expressed in free and fair elections."
“This is the ultimate check within our Constitutional system,” King insisted.
But Hasan sees a glaring flaw with that line of reasoning.
“To the folks - including top Democratic senators - who oppose the use of the 14th Amendment and keep mindlessly repeating ‘let the voters decide’…. they did!” Hasan posted on X. “In 2020. And Trump didn’t accept their decision & incited an insurrection. Why do you think it’ll be different in 2024??”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) on Sunday echoed a similar position, telling CNN’s Dana Bash Trump will simply “try to overturn the election result again.”
“If he’s allowed to stay on the ballot, despite his clear incitement of an insurrection and attempt to overturn the results in the 2020 election, and he loses to Joe Biden ... he will try to overturn the election result again,” Raskin said.
“So I don’t think we can run scared from Donald Trump. We have got to enforce our Constitution. And that certainly was the design of the framers, and that’s what they would have us do,” he added.
Raskin went on to explain how “constitutional federalism” applies to the state ballot debate.
“Under constitutional federalism, every state is ultimately going to control its own ballot access and access to candidates for the ballot,” Raskin told CNN. “And that is obviously difficult when we’re talking about electing the president, who is the one official we have got in America who is supposed to represent the entire country, represent everybody.”
“And so I think that the urgency is for the Supreme Court to act. But I think it’s going to be tough for some of them, if they want to keep Trump on the ballot, if they’re falling for the argument that this is undemocratic,” he added.
