Maine removes Donald Trump from primary ballot, the 2nd state to bar former president
CBC
Maine's top election official on Thursday disqualified Donald Trump from the state ballot in next year's U.S. presidential primary election, becoming the second state after Colorado to bar the former president for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, concluded that Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination in 2024, incited an insurrection when he spread false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election and then urged his supporters to march on the Capitol to stop lawmakers from certifying the vote.
"The weight of the evidence makes clear that Mr. Trump was aware of the tinder laid by his multi-month effort to delegitimize a democratic election, and then chose to light a match," Bellows wrote in her decision.
The decision can be appealed to a state Superior Court, and Bellows suspended her ruling until the court rules on the matter.
Trump's campaign said it would quickly file an objection to the "atrocious" decision.
Lawyers for Trump have disputed that he engaged in insurrection and argued that his remarks to supporters on the day of the 2021 riot were protected by his right to free speech.
The decision came after a group of former Maine lawmakers said that Trump should be disqualified based on a provision of the U.S. Constitution that bars people from holding office if they engaged in "insurrection or rebellion" after previously swearing an oath to the United States.
The former lawmakers — Kimberley Rosen, Thomas Saviello and Ethan Strimling — said in a statement that Bellows "stood on the side of democracy and our constitution in her decision to bar former president Donald Trump from Maine's ballot."
Rosen and Saviello are both former Republican state senators. Strimling is a former Democratic state senator.
Chris Galdieri, a politics professor at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, told CBC News in an interview that the United States finds itself in "a very strange and very dangerous position" following the ruling.
"I think one of the things that this decision and other decisions like it bring forward is just how strange it is that someone like Trump — who lost a presidential election, who tried to overturn the results by force — is still considered not just a force within the Republican Party but is the front-runner for its nomination for president," he said.
The ruling applies only to Maine's March primary election, but it could affect Trump's status for the November general election.
It likely will add to pressure on the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve questions about Trump's eligibility nationwide under the constitutional provision known as Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Advocacy groups and some anti-Trump voters have challenged his candidacy in several states under the provision, which was passed after the U.S. Civil War to keep former confederates from serving in government.
U.S. President Donald Trump is urging other countries to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as Iran targets ships in the vital oil route, but so far there are few firm commitments.
Arab Gulf states reported new missile and drone attacks on Sunday after Iran threatened to widen its campaign as the war in the Middle East entered its third week.
The former secretary general of NATO says he doesn't think allies will be pulled further into the conflict in the Middle East, but he's concerned the ongoing war with Iran will benefit Russia's economy and take the world's attention away from the invasion of Ukraine.
As American and Israeli strikes pound Iran — while it attacks shipping and energy infrastructure across the Persian Gulf — U.S. President Donald Trump made a new threat to Tehran's leaders.
The armed man who rammed his vehicle into one of the largest Reform synagogues in the U.S. Thursday has been identified as a 41-year-old naturalized citizen born in Lebanon, according to federal officials.
With jagged cliffs rising from the Arabian Sea, the Strait of Hormuz is striking in its scenery — and these days, its emptiness. This resource superhighway, which normally hosts more than a hundred of the world’s largest oil and liquid natural gas (LNG) tankers every day, has seen no more than a handful all week.
The Canadian government said Tuesday it is alarmed by the escalation of violence and attacks in Lebanon, as the war in the Middle East expands.
In a resounding victory that is guaranteed to reshape Nepal's politics, rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah appeared headed for a landslide win in the South Asian country's first polls since youth-led protests toppled the previous government last fall.
China’s latest blueprint for driving growth in its economy was largely written before the U.S. and Israel instigated the most far-reaching war in the Middle East in decades.
U.S. President Donald Trump's firing of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday overshadowed the announcement of his plans to nominate Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin as her successor.
The truck carrying Nepali prime ministerial candidate Balendra Shah was swarmed by cheering supporters in the capital, Kathmandu, on Saturday, unable to inch forward as the former rapper, wearing sunglasses and a sleek black suit, danced on top of the roof.
Israel sent troops into southern Lebanon on Tuesday and warned residents of more than 80 villages to evacuate as the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group said it was ready for an "open war" with Israel in the wake of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.