WTF Just Happened Today

Monday, March 4, 2024

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1/ The Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Colorado Supreme Court decision to remove Trump from the ballot for engaging in an insurrection on Jan. 6. The ruling ends efforts in Colorado, Illinois, Maine and elsewhere to remove Trump from the ballot. In an unsigned ruling with no dissents, the court said that only Congress – not the states – can disqualify a presidential candidate under the Constitution’s insurrection clause, suggesting that the result could lead to an unworkable “patchwork” where a candidate could be ineligible in one state but not another. “Nothing in the Constitution requires that we endure such chaos — arriving at any time or different times, up to and perhaps beyond the inauguration,” the court wrote. Five of the six conservative justices went further, saying that Congress must determine who was disqualified under Section 3 of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. The justices, however, didn’t weigh in on whether Trump engaged in an insurrection by attempting to overturn the 2020 election results or encouraging the violence on Jan. 6. Trump, meanwhile, posted on his personal social media network after the decision: “BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!!!” (Washington Post / NBC News / Associated Press / Politico / NPR / New York Times / Axios / ABC News / CNN / CNBC / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal)

• Biden warned that Trump won’t concede if he loses in November, saying: “Losers are never graceful.” (Axios)

2/ Trump’s former chief financial officer pleaded guilty to perjury related to testimony he gave during Trump’s civil fraud trial. Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury and will be sentenced to five months in jail – his second guilty plea in a criminal case involving his work for Trump. He pleaded guilty in a tax fraud case in 2022 and was sentenced to five months. (Axios / NBC News / Politico / Associated Press / CNN /