(FixThisNation.com) – Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) who had decided last week that former President Donald Trump was not eligible to be included in the state’s primary ballot stated on Monday that politics had not played a role in her decision.
In her decision last week Bellows had argued that Trump was disqualified from participating in the election because of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment which has an insurrection clause. The clause specifically bars anyone who had engaged in insurrection while in office from ever holding office again. According to Bellows this also includes Trump as she determined that his actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection had meant that he had “engaged in insurrection.”
In an interview on NPR, Bellows argued that both her personal views and politics had not influenced her decision and that as an elected official she had sworn “an oath to uphold the Constitution.” As she argued her decision had done exactly that.
Maine became the second state to deem Trump ineligible to participate in the presidential election, as a few days earlier the Colorado state Supreme Court had reached a similar conclusion, noting that under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment Trump’s actions deemed him ineligible from holding office in the United States again.
The Trump campaign was quick to slam these decisions and has argued that Bellows was partisan. They further claimed that this was an attempt at election interference in support of President Biden. Still, Bellows has argued that the decision was made after a hearing that she was required to hold under Maine election law. She further pointed out that this was not a process she had started.
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