Former Obama adviser David Axelrod explained why he has “strong reservations” about any effort to stop former President Trump from running in the 2024 presidential election, arguing that doing so would “rip the country apart.”
Speaking during a panel discussion with CNN host Erin Burnett on “OutFront,” Axelrod said he has always believed that “a lot of the motivation for [Trump’s] candidacy was as a legal defense strategy.”
“He wanted to set up a construct…which says that they’re coming after him because he’s running for president and they’re trying to prevent him from being president,” Axelrod continued, pointing out that it’s worked well so far.
The most “blatant” examples, he said, are the moves in Maine and Colorado to disqualify him from the primary ballots. But they’re only strengthening Trump in the Republican presidential primary.
“We’ve run this experiment, he’s only gained since he started getting indicted,” Axelrod noted. “What you thought might be kryptonite for him has turned out to be battery packs, and this is a big one for him.”
That’s why it would be so dangerous if Trump were kept off the ballot, Axelrod argued.
“I do think it would rip the country apart if he were actually prevented from running because tens of millions of people want to vote for him,” he said. “I think if you’re going to beat Donald Trump, you’re going to probably have to do it at the polls.
The interview came days after Maine's secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, ruled that Trump should be kept off the ballot over his conduct surrounding the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, citing Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states: "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
Trump's campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung called the move an "attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter" and vowed to "quickly file a legal objection in state court to prevent this atrocious decision in Maine from taking effect."
Bellows' ruling came after the Colorado Supreme Court kicked the 45th president off the ballot, though Secretary of State Jena Griswold issued an update on Thursday.
"The Colorado Republican Party has appealed the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision in Anderson v. Griswold to the U.S. Supreme Court," Griswold's office said in a statement on Thursday. "With the appeal filed, Donald Trump will be included as a candidate on Colorado’s 2024 Presidential Primary Ballot when certification occurs on January 5, 2024, unless the U.S. Supreme Court declines to take the case or otherwise affirms the Colorado Supreme Court ruling."