Maine on Thursday became the second state after Colorado to declare former US President Donald Trump ineligible to be on the state’s primary ballot. The secretary of state of Maine Shenna Bellows citing the 14th Amendment said the former president “over the course of several months and culminating on January 6, 2021, used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power”.
Shenna Bellows, who is a Democrat and the state’s highest election official, cited the insurrection clauses of the US Constitution and concluded that the former president was “aware of the likelihood for violence and at least initially supported its use given he both encouraged it with incendiary rhetoric and took no timely action to stop it” referring to the January 6 Capitol Hill riots.
Bellows’ decision follows a ruling given earlier this month by the Colorado Supreme Court that barred Trump from the ballot in that state under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
The US Supreme Court stayed that decision as it decides whether the former US president is barred by the Civil War-era provision, which prohibits those who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office.
“Mr. Trump’s occasional requests that rioters be peaceful and support law enforcement do not immunise his actions. A brief call to obey the law does not erase conduct over the course of months, culminating in his speech on the Ellipse. The weight of the evidence makes clear that Mr. Trump was aware of the tinder laid by his multi-month effort to delegitimize a democratic election, and then chose to light a match,” Bellows said in the 34-page decision.
“The US Constitution does not tolerate an assault on the foundations of our government and (Maine law) requires me to act in response,” she further added.
The former president’s campaign team reacted by calling Bellows a “virulent leftist and a hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat”. The campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said the election is being stolen and hostile efforts are being made to hurt American democracy. “We are witnessing, in real-time, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter. Make no mistake, these partisan election interference efforts are a hostile assault on American democracy,” Cheung was quoted as saying by The Hill.
The Trump campaign will challenge the ruling.
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