(NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans are overwhelmingly coming to his defense after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled to remove him from the state’s primary ballot. Meanwhile, similar cases are pending in several other states.
Colorado’s highest court Tuesday knocked former President Trump off the state’s Republican primary ballot under an “insurrection ban” in the 14th Amendment in a 4-3 ruling, making it the first state to block him from seeking the presidency because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
The ruling will likely be argued against in an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
President Joe Biden has not yet commented on the court’s decision, but said there is “no question” Trump supported the Jan. 6 riots.
“Well I think it’s self-evident. You saw it all. Now whether the 14th Amendment applies, we’ll let the court make that decision but he certainly supported an insurrection — no question about it. None. Zero. And he seems to be doubling down on about everything,” Biden said to reporters.
Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign says it has “full confidence” the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly rule in their favor, calling the lawsuit “un-American.” Trump’s legal team is arguing the challenges are anti-Democratic and an attempt to prevent voters from deciding who should be president.
Trump has the chance to appeal the decision up until Jan. 4 if he wants to remain on the Colorado ballot. Jan. 5 is the deadline for Colorado to print their primary ballots.
Colorado is not a critical state for Trump in the long run, but there are efforts in several other states to remove him from their ballots. 35 cases have been filed across the U.S. to disqualify the Republican front-runner. Six of the cases have been dismissed and a dozen have been voluntarily withdrawn but over a dozen of the cases are still pending.
Republicans condemned the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision nearly unanimously, with elected members of the House and Senate and even 2024 GOP hopefuls saying the ruling was an overreach of the court.
Trump’s rivals in the 2024 election have said they all want to beat Trump, but not like this.
“I will tell you that, I don’t think Donald Trump needs to be president. I think I need to be president. I think that’s good for the country. But I will beat him fair and square. We don’t need to have judges making these decisions. We need voters to make these decisions,” said former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis went as far as to say the ruling will benefit Trump politically as we’ve seen his legal troubles boosting his poll numbers over the past few months.
Even former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has been the harshest critic of Trump, condemned the decision.
“I do not believe Donald Trump should be prevented from being president of the United States by any court. I think he should be prevented from being president of the United States by the voters of this country,” Christie said.
Now, the Colorado Republican Party is clapping back at the high court, saying they will go around them and hold a caucus rather than using the primary ballots if the ruling is allowed to stand.