Donald Trump didn’t need another legal setback, but this week, the Colorado Supreme Court handed him one anyway.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars any public official who swore an oath to protect the Constitution from holding office if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against it or gave “aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” With this in mind, a majority of the state Supreme Court concluded that the law applies to the former president, adding that the likely Republican nominee is therefore ineligible for the 2024 ballot.
This, not surprisingly, has generated a great many tantrums from Trump and his partisan brethren, who’ve expressed outrage by the idea of holding someone accountable for wrongdoing just because it’s required under constitutional law. But as NBC News noted, the former president added a new claim to his pushback roughly 24 hours ago.
Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that he’s “not an insurrectionist” in an apparent response to the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to remove him from the state’s 2024 primary election ballot, which President Joe Biden and others have commented on. “I’m not an Insurrectionist (“PEACEFULLY & PATRIOTICALLY”), Crooked Joe Biden is!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
So, a few things.
First, the incumbent Democratic president is neither “crooked” nor an “insurrectionist.” If Republicans had evidence to bolster either accusation, they’ve kept it well hidden.
Second, Trump didn’t even try to explain why anyone should see Biden as an “insurrectionist” because making sense isn’t the point. The rhetoric is rooted in mindless political reflexes, not evidence and reason.
Third, it’s striking just how consistent the Republican is with his I’m-rubber-you’re-glue approach to the public discourse. Accused of attacking democracy, Trump says Democrats are attacking democracy. Accused of being a “puppet” for Vladimir Putin, for example, Trump said Hillary Clinton was the actual puppet. (“No puppet, no puppet,” he said. “You’re the puppet.”) Accused of obstructing justice, Trump said Democrats were obstructing justice. Accused of executing a quid pro quo with Ukraine, Trump said it was his partisan foes who executed a quid pro quo with Ukraine.
But why stop there? Accused of racism, Trump said his critics are racist. When then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said he had a “meltdown” during behind-the-scenes negotiations, Trump said Pelosi had a “meltdown.” Confronted with allegations that his political operation cooperated with Russian operatives, Trump said Democrats colluded with Russia. Told that the Kremlin supported his candidacy, Trump responded by saying Russia supported Democrats.
More recently, after Trump tried to get the Justice Department to go after his political foes, he falsely accused Biden of trying to get the Justice Department to go after his political foes. When prosecutors accused the former president of committing crimes, he accused them of committing crimes. In May 2016, Sen. Ted Cruz — at the time, Trump’s rival for the GOP nomination — said the future president “is a pathological liar. He doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies. He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth. And in a pattern that I think is straight out of a psychology textbook, his response is to accuse everybody else of lying. … Whatever he does, he accuses everyone else of doing.” More than eight years later, we’re reminded not only that Cruz was right, but also that Trump increasingly appears to be a spent political force. The former president just can’t seem to think of anything new or creative. Does he genuinely believe that any sensible person will believe that Joe Biden is an “insurrectionist”? Probably not, but the Republican frontrunner apparently hasn’t come up with a smarter way to deal with the political dilemmas born of his own misconduct. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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