The Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to boot Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 presidential primary ballot could create a fundraising goldmine for him and increase his standing with fellow Republicans, a top GOP advisor said.
“It serves to energize the Trump supporters and to give the former president a chance to raise more money from people who are suddenly going to be angry about what’s going on,” Karl Rove, the former senior advisor during George W. Bush’s administration, told Fox News’ “The Story” on Saturday.
“This does not look fair, does not look appropriate. And the response is going to be to drive up the president’s – the former president’s numbers.”
The 4-3 ruling, handed down Tuesday evening, cited Section 3 of the Civil War-era Fourteenth Amendment, commonly known as the Insurrection Clause or Disqualification Clause, which bars those found to have engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding office.
Democrat-appointed justices on the Centennial State’s highest court concluded that Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, “constituted overt, voluntary and direct participation in the insurrection.”
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The Colorado decision was automatically put on hold until Jan. 4 to give Trump time to file an appeal to the US Supreme Court, which his team has already vowed to do.
Rove also said he believes Democrats risk appearing hypocritical, citing a series of former Democratic lawmakers for whom the insurrection clause could have similarly banned from office.
Among them, he said, was former Confederate Vice President Alexander Hamilton Stephens, a Georgia Democrat elected to the House of Representatives after the Civil War ended.
Stephens resigned after nearly a decade in the House to ultimately become governor of Georgia.
