Former President Donald Trump found an unlikely ally in his fight to remain on the primary ballot in Colorado – former Democratic Representative Adam Kinzinger, one of the most notorious people to be known as a “Never-Trumper.”
On Tuesday, Kinzinger spoke to CNN, saying that the efforts that are being made to remove Trump from the Colorado ballot are “very divisive.”
On Monday, a trial started in Colorado District Court that will determine whether the former president can actually be removed from the state’s ballot. A similar parallel case is set to kick off on Thursday in Minnesota.
A leftist group sued the state, arguing that Trump isn’t able to run for president because he “engaged in an insurrection” while he held public office. That’s explicitly written in the 14th Amendment’s Section 3, which is what the plaintiffs are leaning on in their arguments.
Yet, while Kinzinger said he believes the plaintiffs are “legally justified” in pursuing their case, he doesn’t believe it’s “the best thing for the country to heal through.”
As he said while appearing on CNN:
“Because you can imagine if Donald Trump is removed from the ballot, you’re making a decision not by, you know, the election of people or the lack of election. You’re making the ballot basically by a court. And you’re making a decision by a court. I think that will be very divisive in the long term.
“I can’t imagine at which point anybody in the country or most people in the country would be like, ‘Oh, OK, well I understand a judge found him ineligible, therefore we’re OK with this.’ I just think it will be very divisive. Regardless of what is ruled, Donald Trump has to be defeated at the ballot because that’s the best way for this country to heal.”
So, while Kinzinger hasn’t jumped completely behind Trump to support him, he is saying that preventing him from running for president again would be a bad idea for the country altogether. And he is certainly right.
In Colorado District Court on Wednesday, Trump’s legal team argued that the lawsuit is “anti-democratic.” They also warned that using the provision to disqualify the person who’s the front-runner in the GOP primary would be antithetical to the democratic institution that the U.S. is.
Trump himself posted a video to his social media platform, Truth Social, on Tuesday night, slamming the proceedings. He said:
“A fake trial is currently taking place to try and illegally remove my name from the ballot.”
He later said in the video:
“If crooked Joe and the Democrats get away with removing my name from the ballot, then there will never be a free election in America again. We will have become a dictatorship where your president is chosen for you. You will no longer have a vote, or certainly won’t have a meaningful one.”
Regardless of what the outcome of this case or the one in Minnesota is, it’s very likely that the Supreme Court will be asked to weigh in on it and make the final decision.
