CNN analyst and New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman said the Trump camp views the recent ballot ban in Colorado as “a gift” to former President Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 election.
With host Kaitlan Collins, CNN asked Habberman about the ruling to disqualify Trump, to which the NYT correspondent claimed he is an ineligible presidential candidate because of the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban.”
Haberman weighed in on the Trump ballot ban verdict, admitting that Trump’s advisers see the ruling as a “gift” that could help propel him to the White House.
Collins asked Haberman:
“Maggie, I noted Trump was just on stage, in Waterloo. He did not mention this decision, on stage, there. But what are you hearing, from Trump insiders, about the reaction, to the ruling, tonight.”
Habberman responded:
“They generally see it, Kaitlan, as a gift. I mean, Trump is not happy about any of these cases, particularly cases that tie him, to a charge of insurrection. But they see the way that they anticipate this will play out.”
“As you know, they are going to appeal. They’re going to ask the Supreme Court to take it up. The Supreme Court doesn’t have to,” she said.
“If they don’t, it’s basically affirming the decision, which I think becomes complicated, although they could obviously always affirm it.”
“They feel pretty good about their chances that it will get overturned. And either way, they see this as something that they can use, to argue that he is being victimized,” she added.
“It’s something that’s easy, for voters, to understand, Kaitlan, which is, effort to throw someone off the ballot. Some of these legal cases, the criminal cases that he’s facing are more complicated,” Habberman added.
She concluded:
“So again, none of this, in the aggregate, is the kind of news that most people would like. But somehow, every time Donald Trump gets a piece of legal news, that in normal times would be problematic, it has had a rallying effect, on his supporters.”
Meanwhile, former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, Ty Cobb, predicted the Supreme Court would reverse the decision to disqualify Trump from the 2024 ballot.
Cobb told CNN that while he believes Trump’s actions in questioning the 2020 election results have been a “disaster,” he predicted that the U.S. Supreme Court would unanimously reverse the decision in Colorado.
“I think this case will be handled quickly,” the longtime attorney said.
“I think it could be 9-0 in the Supreme Court for Trump.
“So, I — the way I see this is — is that the Supreme Court has to take this. They can stay the dates in Colorado.”
“They’ll move expeditiously. I was struck by the majority opinion and the amount of verbiage devoted to the sort of strawman arguments,” he said.
“You know, the real key issue in this case is, is Trump an officer of the United States in the context in which that term is used in Article 3 of the 14th Amendment,” Cobb said.
He added:
“And in 2010, Chief Justice Roberts explained in Free Enterprise that people don’t vote for officers of the United States. Article 2, ‘officers of the United States’ is commonly understood in the Constitution to refer to appointed officials.”
“And to the extent that the president or the vice president are included as an officer or included within the admonitions of the Constitution, they are typically highlighted, like in the impeachment clause which specifically says president, vice president.”
“So I think this case will be handled quickly. I think it could be 9-0 in the Supreme Court for Trump.”
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