Colorado’s secretary of state said in an interview late Wednesday that former President Trump does not have a “get out of jail free card” after he appealed a decision to kick him off the ballot in the state earlier in the day.
“Donald Trump is trying to argue he did not incite an insurrection while Colorado courts at this point have determined that he did,” Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) said on MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.”
“Then Trump goes on to argue that even if he did incite the insurrection, well, the Constitution doesn’t apply to him. I don’t think that’s right,” Griswold added. “I don’t think that there’s some ‘get out of jail free’ card for the presidency that allows Donald Trump to escape scrutiny of the laws of the land and the Constitution.”
Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court ruling last month that booted the former president from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone who swore an oath to “support” the U.S. Constitution but “engaged in insurrection” against it from holding federal office.
Trump’s legal team is asking the nation’s highest court to take up the case and immediately reverse the Colorado ruling in a summary decision without oral argument or extensive briefing.
“The Colorado Supreme Court has no authority to deny President Trump access to the ballot,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in the petition. “By doing so, the Colorado Supreme Court has usurped Congressional authority and misinterpreted and misapplied the text of section 3.”
Griswold said on MSNBC that it’s “so important” for the Supreme Court to weigh in on the case.
“This is a big question, it’s novel, it’s unprecedented because usually, we do not have presidents trying to steal the presidency,” she said. “Usually, we do not have people who engage in insurrection run for president.”
Griswold also said she hopes the Supreme Court returns a decision quickly on Colorado’s ruling, noting that she filed a brief on Tuesday to ask the court act expediently.
“So, it’s a quickly approaching timeline,” Griswold said. “I do hope that the Supreme Court acts with urgency. Lawrence, the American people deserve to know whether a president can engage in insurrection and then be qualified once again to hold that office.”