At least two elected leaders of Republican-controlled states have suggested booting President Joe Biden from ballots in their states.
Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis raised the possibility of banning Biden after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled former President Donald Trump ineligible to hold office. While neither Patrick nor DeSantis appeared to seriously consider removing Biden from the ballot, they both said it was possible under the reasoning used by the Colorado high court.
“Seeing what happened in Colorado tonight, Laura, makes me think – except we believe in democracy in Texas – maybe we should take Joe Biden off the ballot in Texas for allowing eight million people to cross the border since he’s been president, disrupting our state far more than anything anyone else has done in recent history,” Patrick said during an appearance on Fox News with host Laura Ingraham.
DeSantis, who is running against Trump in the GOP primary for president, ripped the state supreme court’s decision at a campaign stop.
“There was no trial on any of this. They basically just said, what, you can’t be on the ballot? I mean, how does that work? What’s the limiting principle for that? Could we just say that Biden can’t be on the ballot because he let in eight million illegals into the country and violated the Constitution?” the Florida governor said. He added that he believes the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately overturn the Colorado court’s decision.
The state supreme court ruled that Trump is banned from Colorado’s ballot on Tuesday for “inciting the crowd that breached the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021” and violating Section 3 of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, known as the insurrection clause.
The court has stayed its decision from taking effect until January 4, or indefinitely in case of an appeal. Trump’s campaign has promised to appeal the decision.
In a post on Truth Social after the decision came down, Trump blasted the court and the Biden administration, suggesting that the ruling was a sign of a banana republic and constituted election interference.
“A SAD DAY IN AMERICA!!!” Trump posted on social media.
The Colorado Supreme Court voted in a narrow 4-3 majority to bar Trump from the ballot in the state. The ruling is the latest in a series of legal hurdles facing the former president in his campaign to return to the White House.
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