Late Tuesday night, the Colorado Supreme Court issued a “groundbreaking and controversial decision” about the 2024 GOP presidential primary, stating that former President Donald Trump would be barred from appearing on the state’s ballots. As my colleague Jeff Charles noted, the court said its decision was “based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.”
Now, one of the contenders for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, has weighed in on the decision, according to the Des Moines Register:
AGENCY, Iowa — Republican candidate Nikki Haley said Tuesday night “the last thing we want” is judges deciding who can and can’t be on the presidential ballot after Colorado’s high court ruled former President Donald Trump is disqualified from the primary ballot.[…]
Speaking with reporters at a campaign event in Iowa, Haley said:
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.
While defending Trump’s right “to defend himself,” Haley mentioned that she is disappointed that the former president didn’t “take the opportunity to speak up and stop [Jan. 6]….”:
The courts will decide whether President Trump did something wrong or didn’t. He has the right to defend himself. I will tell you what disappointed me was when this was happening and he had the opportunity to speak up and stop it, he didn’t.
