“It’s Time to Trust the Voters”
By Dan Murphy
Now that two states have declared former President Donald Trump ineligible from appearing on the ballot next year, one of Trump’s rivals for the Presidency, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that Trump should be allowed to appear on the ballot in all 50 states next year.
Last week, the Colorado Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, upheld a decision by a lower Colorado court and found that Trump violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits public officials from holding office if they have engaged in “insurrection.” The court found that Trump did just that, and engaged in an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, at the US Capitol.
And this week, Maine’s Secretary of State issued a decision barring Trump from the ballot next year.
RFK Jr. posted on X, “Every American should be troubled by the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to remove President Trump from the ballot. The court has deprived him of a consequential right without having been convicted of a crime. This was done without an evidentiary hearing in which he is given the basic right of confronting his accusers.
“When any candidate is deprived of his right to run, the American people are deprived of their right to choose. At the very least, it contributes to the perception that the elites are picking the President by manipulating the legal system, and through other interventions.
“If Trump is kept out of office through judicial fiat rather than being defeated in a fair election, his supporters will never accept the result. This country will become ungovernable.
“It’s time to trust the voters. It is up to the people to decide who the best candidate is. Not the courts. The people. That’s Democracy 101.
“I’m not a Trump supporter (if I were, I wouldn’t be running against him!) But I want to beat him in a fair election, not because he was kicked off the ballot. Let the voters choose, not the courts!” said Kennedy.
Tony Lyons, co-founders of American Values 2024, a super PAC supporting RFK Jr.’s campaign, said ” People who are saying they are trying to protect us from losing democracy are the same people who are trying to take it from us. We don’t need to take people off the ballot and kick them off Twitter. We want candidates to get on the stage and tell us what they will do for the people of this country. People who say they are trying to protect us are trying to control us. This is fundamentally un-American. We have certain principles in this country that need to be defended.
I think the American public is not willing to stand for this. They want a candidate who is healthy, and who is authentic, who has integrity and will fight for them. When you see Bobby Kennedy standing up to defend the rights of his opponents, that’s the character that we need in our President,” said Lyons in an interview on Rising The Hill TV.
