CNN’s Jake Tapper Torpedoes Trump Ballot Ban Appeal: ‘Never Seen A President Actually Trying To Foment Violence’
CNN anchor Jake Tapper offered a succinct response to the news that former President Donald Trump launched an appeal of his ban from the presidential ballot in Maine, noting that while the ruling may be unprecedented, so were Trump’s actions.
Trump has now been banned from Republican presidential primary ballots in two states — Colorado and Maine — on the grounds that he violated the 14th Amendment by engaging in insurrection on January 6.
On Tuesday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead, Tapper led a discussion on the breaking news that Trump’s team is appealing the Maine ruling — but led off by pointing out the actions that led to the ban:
TAPPER: First of all, let’s talk about our top story today, Trump’s legal team is appealing the decision by Maine Secretary of State to try to remove him from the state’s primary ballot. We’ve never seen anything like this.
Of course, we’ve thought, we’ve also never seen a president actually trying to foment violence at the Capitol to stop the counting of votes.
What do you make of it?
ANDERSON: I continue to believe that every time he states take him off the ballot, whether the primary or eventually if he becomes the nominee tried to do it for the general that it would be appropriate for the Supreme Court to intervene. Because I don’t think that in this case, it’s good for voters to not have the chance to decide that they don’t want to have Donald Trump. But I frankly think it would be politically smart for Joe Biden to come out and say, everybody who is on my side, I get it, I’ve said that what I think he did that day was insurrection, but I’m not afraid of this guy. And I think voters are going to choose me in the end. I think that’d be politically savvy for him.
TAPPER: What do you think?
KAREN FINNEY: I agree with that point, I would love to see and say, I’m not afraid him, I’m going to take you on, let’s do this. But I do think what’s interesting about the Maine case is remember, he was on CNN earlier today, the gentleman who brought the case is a Republican state senator who had voted for Trump, who was so horrified by January 6, that he filed this. He didn’t think he should be on ballot. What’s important about that is we are seeing in the polls, we saw on that big “New York Times” poll, there is increasingly vote, there are increasingly voters, Republican, Independents who say a conviction would be a factor that would have them not vote for Trump. And I think, you know, as these cases start because, you know, the calendar didn’t show the court dates — now the court dates.
TAPPER: Right.
FINNEY: We’re learning lots of new information every week. Expect that pace is going to kick up here in January. And we don’t know what impact that may have on general election voters in the way that we’re seeing, though, in the primary, you know, Trump is obviously doing quite well.
Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.
