POLITICAL IMPACT OF COLORADO TRUMP BAN
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled 4–3 to bar Trump from the state’s primary ballot because he “engaged in insurrection” by inciting his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The ruling is on hold until Jan. 4 to give the high court a chance to weigh in.
Democrat politicians have largely welcomed the ruling. Some have called for conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from cases involving President Trump.
President Joe Biden declined to comment on the legitimacy of the court’s decision but said emphatically that Trump is an “insurrectionist.”
“I think it’s self-evident. You saw it all,” Biden told reporters in response to a question about the court decision on Dec. 20.
The ruling appears to be triggering new efforts to kick the former president off the ballot in other blue-leaning states, including New York, California, and Pennsylvania.
The 14th Amendment of the Constitution bars from office certain individuals who have engaged in an “insurrection.” Colorado law says only qualified candidates can appear on the ballot.
The justices concluded that since there was a group of people that threatened force, and due to their actions the certification was hindered, and because Trump riled up his supporters with words such as “we fight like hell,” he engaged in insurrection.
Trump’s lawyers and other legal experts have argued the Jan. 6 incident was a riot, not an insurrection. They also say Colorado’s decision is constitutionally flawed and misconstrues the facts of the case.
The decision will likely aid Trump in the long run, according to some analysts.
“It helps him in the sense that it totally dominates the news. It forces his competitors to endorse him against the judges, as you notice they’ve done immediately,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a contributor to The Epoch Times.
Candidates Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswamy all said voters, not judges, should decide whether Trump should be president.
Ramaswamy pledged to remove his name from the Colorado ballot unless Trump is restored, and he called on other candidates to do the same. None have yet agreed to do so.
In a twist, DeSantis theorized that the court’s ruling may be part of an effort to aid Trump in clinching the Republican nomination.
“What the left and the media and the Democrats are doing—they’re doing all this stuff, to basically solidify support in the primary for him, get him into the general, and the whole general election is going to be all this legal stuff,” DeSantis said Dec. 20 in Des Moines, Iowa.
“The ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court will almost assuredly backfire on both Democrats and Republican rivals who have been hoping for these developments for months,” Rich Baris, director of Big Data Poll, said.
The Colorado primary, set for June 25, may have no effect on the Republican nominating contest.
“If Trump does not have the nomination wrapped up by then there is something else much bigger keeping him from doing so than his being barred from this primary,” political analyst Richard Gordon told The Epoch Times.
“If he hasn’t clinched the nomination by then, he never will.”
—Lawrence Wilson, Petr Svab, Sam Dorman
WHY IS BIDENOMICS STILL FALLING FLAT WITH VOTERS?
Biden, who usually avoids discussing the stock market, recently hailed the stock market reaching new highs in an effort to reconnect with voters who are still unhappy with his handling of inflation.
In a social media post, he even mocked his predecessor, Donald Trump, who had warned in 2020 of a stock market crash if Biden were elected.
Despite the economic challenges faced by Americans, the stock market has been on a seven-week winning streak. This impressive run is largely attributed to the Federal Reserve’s “dovish” stance. Since Oct, 27, the Dow Jones and S&P 500 have surged 15 percent, with the Nasdaq jumping 17 percent. The Fed’s recent signal that it may cut interest rates three times in 2024 has offered hope to gloomy investors.
However, despite positive job reports and economic data, most Americans perceive the current economic challenges as the most severe in generations. This perception stems from personal experiences, with many feeling that their incomes are not keeping pace with the rising cost of living.
The fundamental reason Americans are still struggling is that Bidenomics has erased the so-called “wealth effect,” according to Merrill Matthews, a resident scholar at the Institute for Policy Innovation.
The wealth effect is a behavioral economic theory that suggests people feel more financially secure and confident about their wealth when the value of their homes or investment portfolios rises. Economic factors such as the stock market, inflation, home values, and consumer confidence contribute to the wealth effect.
The stock market experienced impressive growth during the Trump years, but it has largely moved sideways, especially during the last two years of Biden’s presidency, contributing to his lower approval ratings on the economy.
Inflation, however, has destroyed the wealth effect the most. While the inflation rate has dropped from its peak of 9.1 percent in June 2022 to 3.1 percent last month, prices remain elevated compared to when President Biden took office. The cost of living has risen significantly, impacting households across the income spectrum.
The Fed’s efforts to curb inflation have also led to a housing affordability crisis. Homeownership has become increasingly distant for many, with rising mortgage rates and property prices. The average monthly mortgage payment on a new home has nearly doubled since Biden took office.
Despite positive macroeconomic indicators, public perception of the economy remains unchanged. It’s unclear whether public perception of Bidenomics will improve in the coming year and whether it will impact the upcoming election. As Karen Hult, a political science professor at Virginia Tech, notes, perceptions matter, but so does mobilization.
Hence, the Biden campaign faces significant work ahead: not only must they work hard to alter people’s perceptions but also to mobilize them to come out and vote amid low approval ratings.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- The United States and Denmark will sign a joint defense cooperation agreement.
- A pair of Republican county supervisors from a conservative rural county in Arizona, Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby, are arraigned on charges that they conspired to delay the election results by voting to do so in their official capacity.
BOOKMARKS
The Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling against ballot access for Trump has been blasted by a range of public figures, and not just Trump allies. Everyone from liberal journalist Jonathan Chait to anti-Trump libertarian politician Justin Amash to law professor and self-described “Catholic Integralist” Adrian Vermeule has taken issue with the decision (one notable exception is George W. Bush-era neoconservative David Frum, now a fixture in the legacy media, who argued in The Atlantic that the maneuver “gave Republicans a chance to save themselves.”)
Where many Americans from all sides see the decision as a blow to the democratic process, some high-profile Democrats are eyeing it as a possible precedent, even ahead of a possible reversal by the U.S. Supreme Court. Forbes reports that California’s attorney general has asked its secretary of state to look into “every legal option” to kick Trump off the presidential primary ballot in that state.
Speaking of Trump, The Epoch Times’ Caden Pearson breaks down a new order from Judge Arthur Engoron, the man presiding over the former president’s civil fraud trial in New York. The judge questioned expert testimony from New York University Professor of Accounting Eli Bartov, claiming that “for a million or so dollars, some experts will say whatever you want them to say.” Bartov has fired back, accusing the judge of “mischaracterizing” the testimony he offered.
The Epoch Times’ Joseph Hanneman delves into the implications of an upcoming Supreme Court case involving January 6 defendant Joseph W. Fischer. It could undercut J6 prosecutions that have relied on a provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, originally aimed at white-collar financial crime.
The National Ocean Industries Association believes America’s energy policy is at a “critical point” thanks to the Biden administration’s approach to offshore oil and gas leasing. One of their main concerns: a recent offshore lease sale could be the last until 2025. The Epoch Times’ Tom Ozimek has more.
The Washington Examiner reports that Monday, Dec. 18, 2023, was a momentous day in American history. Why? Officials encountered 14,509 illegal immigrants at the southern border—the most ever on a single day.
—Nathan Worcester