WTF Just Happened Today

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

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1/ Trump asked the Supreme Court to keep his name on Colorado ballot. Last month, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump engaged in an insurrection before and during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and as a result Trump was “disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” It was the first time that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection clause” has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate. And, last week Maine’s secretary of state removed Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot based on the Constitution’s “insurrectionist ban.” Both states – which hold their primaries on Super Tuesday on March 5 – temporarily put their decisions on hold so they could be appealed. (Washington Post / CNN / ABC News / NBC News / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / Associated Press)

2/ Biden will mark the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection with a speech at a key site in the Revolutionary War. Biden will deliver remarks – expected to highlight the stakes of the presidential election – near a site where a group of militias gathered to form a coalition to fight for democracy in the 1770s, and where George Washington rallied troops into a unified army. “We are running a campaign like the fate of our democracy depends on it, because it does,” Biden’s reelection campaign said, adding: If Trump wins in November, he “will use all of his power to systematically dismantle and destroy our democracy.” Trump faces 91 criminal charges stemming from his efforts to overturn his loss to Biden and three other felony cases. (Associated Press / NBC News / Washington Post / NPR / Axios)

• ???? American democracy has overcome big stress tests since the 2020 election. More challenges are ahead. “Trump is running for the White House again and has been dominating the Republican primary as the first votes approach. He has called for pardoning those prosecuted for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, continues to insist falsely that the 2020 election was ‘stolen’ and says he will use the federal government to seek revenge on his political enemies. Trump has used increasingly authoritarian rhetoric as he campaigns for the GOP nomination. If he wins, allies have been planning to seed the governmen...

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