Last Friday, President Joe Biden gave a speech about the coming third anniversary of January 6, in which he ranted and raved about MAGA Republicans and threats to democracy. Meanwhile, Biden's fellow Democrats are doing all they can to take action against former President Donald Trump, Biden's likely opponent in the November general election. Biden himself went after Trump directly in Friday's speech and in a speech from earlier on Monday in South Carolina. There's a litany of charges brought against the former president, including but not only from Special Counsel Jack Smith, as well as efforts to kick him off the ballot. Such attempts succeeded in Colorado, thanks to the Colorado Supreme Court, and in Maine, thanks to Secretary of State Shenna Lee Bellows, who was not elected by voters but by the Democratic-controlled state legislature. This isn't just an effort supported by Democratic officials; it's one that Democratic voters support.
A CBS News poll released on Sunday shows that Americans overall support keeping Trump's name on the ballots, 54 to 46 percent. Broken down by political party, however, 81 percent of Democrats support kicking him off. In contrast, 56 percent of Independents and 90 percent of Republicans support keeping his name on the ballot.
The phrasing of the question was a pretty fair assessment of the issue at hand, asking, "Some states have removed Donald Trump's name from their election ballots, arguing he committed insurrection and is therefore ineligible to serve as president. Other states are keeping Donald Trump's name on their ballots, arguing it is up to voters to decide if he should serve. Regardless of how you plan to vote, which do you think states should do?"
Guy covered the result of the poll as well, mocking how Democrats are "the party that purports to be the stalwart defenders of norms and 'democracy.'"
Curt Levey, a constitutional law attorney and president of the Committee for Justice, spoke to the alarming nature of this figure.
"It is disturbing to see that Democrats, who profess to be concerned that Trump is a threat to democracy, are so willing to see democratic norms thrown out the window. Since this country's founding, our political parties have refrained from using lawfare to keep their opponent off the presidential ballot, no matter how despicable they thought their opponent was. Instead, they trusted the voters to be the ultimate judge of their opponent," he said in a statement to Townhall.
Those in support of kicking Trump off the ballot cite Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, though it's worth noting that legal experts, including Democrats like Alan Dershowitz, have criticized this argument. Dershowitz, who taught at Harvard Law, has called out Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), one of the Democrats making such an argument about the 14th Amendment, for how wrong he is on the matter.
Dershowitz also predicted last month that the U.S. Supreme Court would take up the case and "will not affirm the Colorado Supreme Court decision." He also offered a "guess" that it won't just be 5-4 or 6-3, either. The Court announced last Friday that it would take up the case, with oral arguments set for February 8. Levey spoke to Townhall about that announcement as well. Without the Court stepping in, Levey warned, there could be a "very dangerous road" ahead.
"Sadly, this poll reveals that the vast majority of Democrats no longer trust the democratic process and are willing to undermine it to keep Trump from being elected president again. That's a very short-sighted view, especially because red states can use the Fourteenth Amendment or some other legal excuse to keep the Democrats' nominated or presumed presidential candidate off the state's ballot. Hopefully, the U.S. Supreme Court will stop Democrats from going down this very dangerous road," he stated.
The poll, which also contained many findings about how Americans regard January 6, was discussed on "CBS Evening News" on Saturday night, during which correspondent Ed O'Keefe pointed to the poll showing "a sharp partisan divide."
He also referenced how Trump "continues to say he's confident that he'll ultimately prevail" and that more legal challenges will "embolden his supporters in this first-in-the-nation state" of Iowa, where the Republican caucus is next Monday. O'Keefe highlighted Trump's lead in Iowa as well, and how the frontrunner refuses to heed calls from primary opponents former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to join him on the stage in Iowa for the CNN debate on January 10. Trump has refused to participate in the debates and is instead doing a Fox News town hall that night.
Comments from Trump were also featured in the segment, as he expressed hope for "fair treatment," warning "because if we don't, our country's in big, big trouble." Trump asked the crowd in Iowa, "Does everybody understand what I'm saying?" Although CBS cut the clip at that point, Trump had gone on to say, "I think so, because they'll cover that completely differently. They'll cover that in a much different manner. But I'm just saying it's a very unfair situation that takes place."
The poll was conducted January 3-5 with 2,157 U.S. adult residents with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
The idea of letting the voters decide, as Levey mentioned in his statement, showed up in another poll. That poll, from The Economist/YouGov, shows 62 percent of respondents believe that voters should be able to make that determination, which includes 51 percent of Democrats, 60 percent of Independents, and 75 percent of Republicans.
Regarding the question of who should be involved, it's worth highlighting how Bellows' decision was criticized by Maine's Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Angus King, an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats. Both voted to impeach Trump in 2021 for his second impeachment, with King also voting to do so in 2020 for the first impeachment. Both Collins and King made it clear that the decision should be left to the voters.
When it comes to this "select all that apply" question, 55 percent of Democrats say that the courts should get involved, while 43 percent of Independents and 28 percent of Republicans say so.
That poll was conducted December 31-January 2, before the Supreme Court announced it would take up the Colorado case, with 1,521 U.S. adult citizens and a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percent.
It's curious Democrats would be the most supportive of the courts getting involved, given how much they hate the U.S. Supreme Court, often smearing it as "illegitimate" and going after the conservative justices, Clarence Thomas in particular. That same poll showed that 60 percent of Democrats, 68 percent of Biden voters from 2020, and 73 percent of liberal respondents disapprove of the Court.
While many believe that the Court will strike down the Colorado Supreme Court's decision and that votes to do so may come from the Democratic-appointed justices as well, we can surely expect much wailing and gnashing of teeth from Democrats when that happens.
Democrats' views are not only anti-democratic but also bizarre. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had quite the befuddling appearance on ABC News's "This Week" on Sunday, during which she didn't want to get into how "intricate" it was that her state of California decided not to kick Trump off of the ballot.
Host George Stephanopoulos directly asked, "Do you believe that Donald Trump engaged in insurrection?" While Pelosi was direct in her response that she believed, "Yes, I think that he engaged in an insurrection. I think that he incited an insurrection. And, again, that he would not stop what was going on," she wasn't so forthcoming from there.
"So, Madam Speaker, if you believe he engaged in insurrection under the plain meaning of the 14th Amendment, you believe he's ineligible to be president," he went on to ask, to which she offered, "They have different laws from state to state," bringing up the irrelevant opinion of "I don't think he should ever have been president."
When Stephanopoulos brought up how "it's the Constitution," Pelosi pointed to how "there's a view," one that many in her own party subscribe to, "that he should not be able to run for president," and then argued, "but that's not the point." Rather, "the point now is, again, different states have different laws."
ABC: "You believe [Trump] is ineligible to be president?"
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 7, 2024
NANCY PELOSI: "They have different laws from state-to-state."
ABC: "It's the Constitution..."
NANCY PELOSI: "That's not the point." pic.twitter.com/2lPZc1q6A0