MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart filled in for Alex Wagner on Thursday’s “Alex Wagner Tonight” and was treated to huge breaking news — Maine’s ruling that former President Donald Trump is ineligible for their state ballot in 2024.
Speaking with Capehart on the matter, Mark Joseph Stern, senior writer at Slate, said that a second state blocking Trump from the ballot shows that “the dominos are beginning to fall” out of his favor for reelection.
“This is obviously a really big deal,” he said.
Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows ruled that Trump is disqualified from appearing on the ballot under section three of the 14th Amendment, due to his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
In her ruling, Bellows said, “I have little trouble concluding that the events of Jan. 6, 2021, were an insurrection within the meaning of section three of the 14th Amendment.”
Capehart noted that Maine is now the second state to rule this way, joining Colorado. However, these cases will likely be appealed by both sides to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Bellows is aware that her ruling will be questioned and possibly struck down. The Maine secretary of state paused the decision from going into effect pending an appeal from the Trump campaign.
Covering the breaking news Thursday, Capehart said, “We now have two states that have ruled that Trump did engage in insurrection and should not appear on their state’s primary ballots. Those decisions will now clearly be appealed up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will decide whether Trump is a legitimate candidate entitled to run for and hold the highest office in the land.”
“When it was just Colorado that had gotten out in front striking Trump from the ballot, it felt like maybe it was an outlier, an aberration,” Stern added. “But now we have another state Maine that has undertaken a very serious review through the Secretary of State’s office and reached the same conclusion.”
Stern noted that “the legal analyses are beginning to all point in the same direction. The evidence that Trump incited an insurrection, in the terms of the 14th amendment, it’s starting to pile up.”
Watch the full “Alex Wagner Tonight” segment in the video above.
