2y ago

Maine secretary of state who opted to keep Trump off primary ballot is facing threat of impeachment

Maine’s top election official could face an impeachment attempt in the state Legislature over her decision to keep former President Donald Trump off the Republican primary ballot.

At least one Republican lawmaker has vowed to pursue impeachment against Democratic Secretary of State Shenna Bellows despite long odds in the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

Bellows said Friday that she had no comment on the impeachment effort, but said she was duty-bound by state law to make a determination on three challenges brought by registered Maine voters. She reiterated that she suspended her decision pending an anticipated appeal by Trump in Superior Court.

“Under Maine law, I have not only the authority but the obligation to act,” she said. “I will follow the Constitution and the rule of law as directed by the courts,” she added.

33 comments

I feel like we are living in a simulation. We have to be bcz nobody is this insane to think that Trump didn't break the law, and clearly based on the constitution is ineligible to be president again.. the republican party has gone bat shit crazy in the last 10 years, and it's bonkers that they have any support at all, and somehow 30-35% of the country supports this bullshit??
- Republicans are insane right now. They're going full fascist. I don't know what else you call it when they so blatantly ignore the rule of law to disrupt the peaceful transition of power to stay in power.
  
  The attempted coup was standard run-of-the-mill authoritarianism. There are dozens of other examples for why they are irrefutably fascist.
- Yeah, the last time this scenario played out, people put up with a lot of bullshit and terror before people got organized to try to stop it ...... that led to a world war where millions died.
  The best time to stop this madness is now because if you don't, it takes far more force and even violence as time moves on.
  I'm not exaggerating ... I'm being serious because I don't want to live in a timeline that our ancestors fought and died to avoid.
  
  The left has a serious problem with direct action.
  Meanwhile the core tenet of fascism is "By any means necessary"
- Their literal response to one of the most serious crimes in existence was "no you" and there is a realistic chance they could be the next most powerful government in the world.
- They know he broke the law- they just don't think he should be held accountable for it.
  "I would pardon Trump if he is found guilty (...) What’s in the best interest of the country is not to have an 80-year-old man sitting in jail that continues to divide our country." -Nikki "why wouldn't the party of racist sexist bigots elect a nonwhite woman for President?" Haley.
- nobody is this insane to think that Trump didn’t break the law, and clearly based on the constitution is ineligible to be president again
  Insane? There are law professors writing editorials in the New York Times about how, in their expert opinion, Trump actually is eligible. You might think they're wrong (clearly the Maine secretary of state does) but this is a genuinely ambiguous and unsettled matter of law; there's no "insane" side.
  
  It's not a hard concept that when someone attempts coup, they should not be allowed back in power. Many many countries have put leaders in prison for less. Law has to mean something, or your country and institutions will not last. He has broken so many laws while in office it's not even funny, and we've mostly turned a blind eye to it until very very recently.
  
  That's interesting because the Times also just put out an article referencing Federalist professors who determined he should be disqualified. Looks like they're playing both sides, lol.
  
  Kind of surreal to see someone arguing that an insurrection isn't a disqualifying action for a presidential candidate and that it's clearly just a matter of opinion with a legit argument
I don't get how Republicans have any credibility amongst the electorate at this point. They demand blind obedience, or else cry foul, and somehow, a significant part of the population still supports this bullshit. Their eyes must be painted on, or else they're willfully ignorant.
- They don't care about credibility, rule of law, consistency, or even hypocrisy. They want their team to win at all costs and are stupid enough to not see the consequences of their actions.
- People are just stupid, man. Or, more truthfully... People are poorly educated. By design. The situation here in the UK is similar, large portions of the electorate have no clue what is going on and either don't vote or vote against their own interests. And the people they vote for continue to erode the education systems that might break the cycle... Because of course they would! They don't benefit from an educated, informed populace. They benefit from sheep who will blindly follow the Trumps and Johnsons and Farages into whatever policy makes the ruling classes the most money.
- There are plenty of stupid, ignorant people who still to this day say both parties are the same simply because they're too stupid and ignorant to tell them apart.
- I think it's not that the significant amount of the population supports them, it's rather that they detest the left and would side with anyone except the Dems.
  
  Dems aren't even left man. This is depressing
- The problem is how to excise this ignorance out of our culture? We are stuck with this trash for at least my lifetime, and I'm 40. I can't see this country overhauling education, cracking down on racism/xenophobia and unfucking the gerrymandering that has been perpetrated by the trashy right for 20yrs before I die.
Huh, not surprising. She is apparently getting death threats from the party of "law and order", too.
- party of "law" and "order"
  Party of "their law" and "their order"
Conservatism needs to be made illegal.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Bellows said Friday that she had no comment on the impeachment effort, but said she was duty-bound by state law to make a determination on three challenges brought by registered Maine voters.
Bellows’ decision Thursday followed a ruling earlier this month by the Colorado Supreme Court that removed Trump from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
In Maine, state Rep. John Andrews, who sits on the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee, called the decision “hyper-partisanship on full display” as he pressed for an impeachment proceeding.
It remains to be seen if her effort at voter suppression will garner enough Democrat support to remove her from her position,” said House Republican leader Billy Bob Faulkingham.
U.S. Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said Friday that absent a final judicial determination on the issue of insurrection, the decision on whether Trump should be considered for president “should rest with the people as expressed in free and fair elections.”
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, the state’s senior senator, was one of a handful of Republicans to vote to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial, and she criticized him in a floor speech for failing to obey his oath of office.
The original article contains 624 words, the summary contains 203 words. Saved 67%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Wasn't this mentioned immediately in response to her decision?

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