Former deputy independent counsel Sol Wisenberg called an Illinois judge’s ruling disqualifying former President Donald Trump from the ballot “appalling” Wednesday.
Cook County Judge Tracie Porter issued a ruling Wednesday evening disqualifying Trump from the March 19 Republican primary and the Nov. 5 general election ballots, citing the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection clause.” The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Feb. 8 on Trump’s appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court’s Dec. 19 ruling disqualifying him.
WATCH:
“The arrogance of this is appalling, and waiting until this late in the day to do it, giving the president, the former president just until Friday to file an appeal to the Supreme Court. It is already Wednesday, and then to say at the end of it, she issues an order that says my ruling will be further stayed if the U.S. Supreme Court enters an opinion inconsistent with this order,” Wisenberg told Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “Well, guess what? If they do what most people think they’re going to do, they’re going to enter an opinion that makes it impossible for Illinois to take him off the ballot. So, the arrogance of that is just, should not astonish me, but it does.”
Democratic Secretary of State Shenna Bellows of Maine declared Trump ineligible to appear on the ballot Dec. 28, but a court halted the removal pending a ruling by the Supreme Court.
“The Supreme Court is going to issue an opinion that makes it clear that the state does not have the power to do this: Number one, the state cannot kick him off the ballot; Number two, the state cannot put a condition on being a – on being on the presidential ballot greater than what the Constitution calls for, so I don’t think they are going to reach that,” Wisenberg said. “You know what they say about Cook County, vote early and vote often. … This is consistent with their pathetic history of election non-integrity.”
The Trump campaign blasted the Illinois ruling in a statement by spokesman Steven Cheung sent out Wednesday evening.
“Today, an activist Democrat judge in Illinois summarily overruled the state’s board of elections and contradicted earlier decisions from dozens of other state and federal jurisdictions,” Cheung said in the statement. “This is an unconstitutional ruling that we will quickly appeal. In the meantime, President Trump remains on the Illinois ballot, is dominating the polls, and will Make America Great Again!”
Harold Hutchison on February 28, 2024
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