Missouri secretary of state, CNN anchor get heated in interview over Trump, ballots

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R) and CNN anchor Boris Sanchez on Monday got into a contentious back and forth over whether former President Trump can be kept off the ballot in 2024.

As Ashcroft joined CNN for an interview on Monday afternoon Sanchez cited a tweet from the Missouri attorney general calling a decision by local courts and state officials in Colorado and Maine “disgraceful” and asked the Republican why he disagreed with the decisions.

“The Constitution gives the criteria for individuals to run for president. The Maine constitution does not do that,” Ashcroft said.

“But Congress gives the states the ability to determine how their elections are run,” Sanchez shot back.

“But it does not give them the authority to add conditions to who may run for president,” Ashcroft responded. “What we saw happen in Maine was a total lack of due process, a total misunderstanding of the 14th Amendment and a decision that was made by someone that’s not even an attorney, much less a judge.”

Ashcroft then asked Sanchez if hearsay evidence was allowed in Trump’s case in Colorado, to which the anchor said he “hasn’t gone through all the evidence,” so he was “not in a position to say so,” but he noted Trump’s legal team had the opportunity to respond to the allegations against it in court and did not do so.

“The United States Constitution is supreme over state constitution — I hope you at least understand that,” Ashcroft said taking a shot at Sanchez, to which he responded, “I do.”

Some Republican state officials have suggested barring President Biden from the ballot in response to the decisions in Colorado and Maine.

Sanchez pressed Ashcroft on this point, and asked him “how do you justify” keeping Biden off the ballot and pressed him by asking whether “he engaged in your mind some kind of insurrection?”

“There are some allegations that he has engaged in insurrection,” Ashcroft said before Sanchez quickly interrupted him, asking how and saying “you can’t say something like that without backing it up.”

“Are you scared of the truth?” Ashcroft said to Sanchez, now shouting.

“I am not petrified of the truth at all, it seems like you might be. Let’s hear what you have to say,” Sanchez responded.

Ashcroft gave no specific answer to how Biden had committed insurrection but cited “allegations” from officials in Texas and Florida before suggesting Trump was also merely the victim of “allegations” about his effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to take up whether Trump can be disqualified from appearing on Colorado’s ballot, over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

It was the second contentious back-and-forth Sanchez has had with a GOP official on “CNN News Central” in the last week. On Tuesday, he asked the chair of Maine’s Republican Party seven times why it was wrong to kick Trump off the ballot in his state.