In typical fashion, Chris Christie did not mince words when asked about the recent decision by Maine’s secretary of state to remove Donald Trump from the ballot. The former New Jersey governor slammed the decision and said that the anti-democratic move would only help the former president’s campaign in the long run.
The Hill writes:
“[I]t makes him a martyr,” Christie said on CNN Friday. “You know, he’s very good at playing ‘Poor me, poor me,’ he’s always complaining. The poor billionaire from New York who’s spending everybody else’s money to pay his legal fees.”
On Thursday, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) said she had concluded the former president “over the course of several months and culminating on January 6, 2021, used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power.” Bellows’ decision made Maine the second state to take such an action, after the Colorado Supreme Court last week via a 4-3 ruling.
“Mr. Trump’s occasional requests that rioters be peaceful and support law enforcement do not immunize his actions,” she said. “A brief call to obey the law does not erase conduct over the course of months, culminating in his speech on the Ellipse. 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.”
Trump’s campaign has denounced the decision and called Bellows a “virulent leftist and a hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat.”
Christie was not the only one to slam the decision from Bellows. The Wall Street Journal labeled the move as an in-kind contribution to the Trump campaign.
“Ms. Bellows is a former ACLU official, served in the state Senate as a Democrat, and ran for the U.S. Senate against Republican Susan Collins. Her ruling gets her name in the headlines and perhaps will be a boost in her next try for higher office. She has added nothing to the legal merits, though she has reinforced Mr. Trump’s campaign narrative.
Maine is unlikely to matter in the GOP primary, and meantime Ms. Bellows is giving Mr. Trump another chance to tell Iowa and New Hampshire Republicans that Democrats are attempting to steal the 2024 election before the voting begins. Democrats really do want to run against Mr. Trump next year.”
Trump has vowed to appeal the ruling.
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