GOP presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy pledged to withdraw from Colorado primary in solidarity after the state’s Supreme Court disqualified election frontrunner Donald Trump from appearing on the party’s primary ballot.
Ramaswamy posted his reaction to the court’s ruling on X, challenging his fellow nomination hopefuls to boycott the primary to avoid taking advantage of what he argued was the Democratic party’s attack on the basic principles of popular democracy.
“This is what an *actual* attack on democracy looks like: in an un-American, unconstitutional, and *unprecedented* decision, a cabal of Democrat judges are barring Trump from the ballot in Colorado,” he wrote.
“I pledge to *withdraw* from the Colorado GOP primary unless Trump is also allowed to be on the state’s ballot, and I demand that Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, and Nikki Haley to [sic] do the same immediately — or else they are tacitly endorsing this illegal maneuver which will have disastrous consequences for our country.”
On Wednesday, Ramaswamy appeared on popular podcaster Benny Johnson’s show to elaborate on why he believes the other candidates should boycott the Colorado primary, too.
“If every Republican eliminated themselves from the Colorado ballot. Problem solved. Because the effect of this Colorado judge’s ruling is totally nullified — it’s a uniparty move on behalf of the establishment in both parties.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Wednesday that he expects the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the Colorado ruling but did not comment on whether he would participate in the Colorado primary if Trump is still barred.
“We don’t need to have judges making these decisions; we need voters to make these decisions,” said Nikki Haley, though she did not demure from the primary absent Trump either.
Chris Christie also said he does not believe that “Donald Trump should be prevented from being president of the United States by any court. I think he should be prevented from being president of the United States by the voters of this country.” He did not say what he would do if Trump remained off the primary ballot.
Asked by a reporter on Wednesday to weigh in on whether Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021, amounted to an insurrection, President Joe Biden claimed that it was “self-evident,” but that whether that was disqualifying per the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was for the courts to decide, per NBC News.
“You saw it all. Now, whether the Fourteenth Amendment applies, we’ll let the court make that decision. But he certainly supported an insurrection. There’s no question about it. None. Zero.”
