Biden’s Democratic Primary Challengers Criticize Attempts To Keep Trump off the Ballot: ‘We Should Support Democracy’

Democratic presidential candidates Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), Marianne Williamson, and Cenk Uygur condemned attempts to keep former President Donald Trump off the ballot in 2024 during NewsNation’s Democratic Presidential Forum on Friday.

Asked for her thoughts on Maine and Colorado’s decision to bar Trump from the ballot, Williamson said:

He has not been convicted of the crime of insurrection. He hasn’t been, and so for a judge to just opine on this, I think it’s very dangerous. The people who love Donald Trump are going to vote for Donald Trump. We could indict him 91 more times, he could be in prison, people are going to vote for him. Anything we do to try to obstruct Donald Trump, this is not the way we’re going to win in ’24. We’re going to win in ’24 by offering the American people a better life.

She concluded, “We will beat him on the issues. Let us not beat him in court.”

After NewsNation host Dan Abrams asked Uygur, “Do you think that Donald Trump should be kept off the ballot because of the 14th Amendment,” Uygur replied:

No, I don’t. I think the voters should decide, whether it’s us in primaries being put on the ballots, or Donald Trump in a primary or general election being put on a ballot. If we think democracy’s on the line, we should actually participate in democracy. We should support democracy.

He added, “But I want people to understand, the 14th Amendment is a complicated issue in both Section One, as it applies to me, Section Three, as it applies to Donald Trump, and let the courts decide that.”

Abrams responded, “Let’s be clear with regards to you, right? You were born in Turkey, and so there’s a question about whether you’re even eligible to run for president.”

Finally, after Phillips was asked for his thoughts on the ballot issue, the congressman said:

I was trapped in the House chamber on January 6. I’ll say the quiet part out loud, Donald Trump inspired an insurrection. Every one of my colleagues in the Senate and House know it, we tried to prosecute him, and we failed. Do I think the Democratic Party should pursue legal channels to beat Donald Trump? No! The same way they shouldn’t pursue the same channels to keep us off the ballot.

Phillips concluded, “We should let American voters be the judge and jury.”

Watch above via NewsNation.