 I'm wondering though what would then be your justification for removing Joe Biden from the ballot in Missouri has he engaged in your mind in some kind of insurrection uh there have been allegations that he's engaged in insurrection how so all there have no please let me finish there have only been allegation something like that and not back it up what do you mean i am continuing but you interrupted me before i could back it up go ahead are you scared the truth oh i'm not terrified of the truth at all it seems like you might let's see what you have to say have only been allegations against what allegations president trump has never been um uh adjudicated sure what did joe biden do in your mind that equates insurrection what allegations are you talking about um i have i have seen allegations from the lieutenant governor of texas that has said that the that uh joe biden has has uh has been uh been part of insurrection or rebellion we've seen the president that's right the governor of florida say the same thing and selection over what what what did the governor of texas say that that joe biden was causing an insurrection over if you're gonna make the claim give me give me some specifics are you just gonna cite the governor of texas or florida and not actually say what they are arguing do you know what they're arguing you just watched Missouri secretary of state j ashcroft malfunction when he was asked to legally justify his threat to remove joe biden from the ballot in his state over biden's alleged participation in quote insurrection which is very rich coming from a republican i know but his argument is basically well if they can do it then we can do it too but it literally doesn't work that way and i feel like i shouldn't have to explain this to somebody who went to law school when i did not but the cnn host is going to explain this to him as well and he's just not gonna get it but let's watch all what i'm telling you is this they made allegations and all it took for the president for former president trump to be taken off the ballot in colorado and in main were allegations we should not be a country that removes people from the ballot based on allegations i think you can agree with that i think it it depends to a degree because i can be removed from the end my guy joe biden is not my guy you don't know who my guy is the point is sir the point is that it's not clear whether the 14th amendment is self executing or not it in other words it doesn't matter to a court at that point whether there was a conviction of donald trump for insurrection or not now this cnn host is absolutely correct here's what section three of the 14th amendment actually says quote no person shall be a senator or representative in congress or elector of president and vice president or hold any office civil or military under the united states and then it goes on but basically if they have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof but congress may buy a vote of two-thirds of each house remove such disability so as you can see the 14th amendment does not state whether or not there has to be a conviction it just says somebody may not be president if they engaged in insurrection now trump has unquestionably engaged in insurrection and gave comfort to enemies thereof that's why states like main colorado are opting to remove him from the ballot and rightfully so protecting democracy necessitates the removal of candidates who vocalize their intent to destroy democracy and as much as i dislike jail biden he hasn't engaged in a literal insurrection so removing him from the ballot would be absurd i shouldn't have to explain this to the secretary of state because again this is somebody who went to law school he should know this but his threat is just him basically going tit for tat because he's mad and he basically admitted this on twitter writing what has happened in colorado and main is disgraceful and undermines our republic while i expect the supreme court to overturn this if not secretaries of state will step in and ensure the new legal standard for real donald trump applies equally to joe biden look that sounds fair to me if it is the case that joe biden like trump stages an actual insurrection and tries to stay in power after losing an election then yes by all means disqualify him from the ballot as well apply it all equally but that's not what he's talking about here instead he talks about this new legal standard new legal standard what are you talking about it's just a legal standard if there's any new legal standard it's the fact that for the first time we're holding somebody as powerful as a former president accountable or at least we're trying to we'll see how it turns out when it comes to the court but i mean he thinks that this just basically means that republicans can remove democrats from the ballots if democrats can remove republicans from the ballots but first and foremost that is a childish line of logic and the difference here is that the courts made this decision or at least one court made this decision and another secretary of state made the decision and we can't just ignore the most important fact trump committed an insurrection which is why they're doing this it's not like they're just choosing to remove trump from the ballot because they don't like him he committed a fucking insurrection that inconvenient fact is something that he just doesn't want to acknowledge and colorado is well within their right to do exactly what they did based on a clear reading of the constitution nbc news explains colorado supreme court based its ruling on the u.s constitution's 14th amendment which bars those who engaged in insurrection from running for various federal offices now when it comes to main it is a bit different quote the main case is slightly different than the one in colorado there the democratic secretary of state made the determination that trump was ineligible for the ballot so when it comes to main you can say yes a democrat removed trump from the ballot but when it comes to colorado a court made this determination so either way trump actually did do what they're accusing him of doing so it's just wild to me that he's pretending as if they're doing this just out of nowhere just inexplicably we're just gonna take him off the ballot he did an insurrection it's just it's wild to me but since they're doing this to trump that means that i can do it to biden because uh as the secretary of state surely knows that's exactly how the law works now he didn't specifically explain this but the insurrection allegation that he wouldn't speak to comes from texas lieutenant governor dan patrick who made this very sound legal argument quote seeing what happened in colorado tonight makes me think except we believe in democracy in texas maybe we should take joe biden off the ballot in texas for allowing eight million people to cross the border since he's been president disrupting our state far more than anything anyone else has done in recent history patrick said in an interview with fox news anchor laura ingram so as you can see we're getting very strong big-brained arguments from republicans who want to remove biden from the ballot well they did it so we can too and it never ceases to amaze me how they'll decry biden's open border policy when he's been almost as ruthless and xenophobic as trump but open border because he's president so what he's doing is bad by default it's just so ridiculous they're so unserious but i do want to get back to j ashcroft and this interview because it was a complete disaster and calling it a disaster would be an understatement because this was an embarrassment and he just couldn't legally justify biden's exclusion from the ballot he's just pissed and he can't say that so he's trying to like cloak his butt hardness in some sort of legal justification but he's got nothing and that's evident so he says that this is basically bad because it sets a precedent where you can just remove candidates from the ballots which again ignores the fact that trump literally engaged in insurrection but he says that oh this is going to be this new standard where if they do what we do it and this is really going to be chaotic except it doesn't work that way but let's listen to how he justifies it um the brief that i will be filing with the united supreme united state supreme court is not going to say that president trump is a bad person it's not going to say that he's a good person what it's going to say is that this extra judicial means of removing people from the ballot is catastrophic to our country if it's allowed to continue because if democrats can do it you know that republicans will do it and if republicans will do it then democrats will do it to that point secretary in order to remove president biden from the ballot according to your state constitution you would need to go to court what do you think would be your strongest argument not not at all your state constitution actually states that the secretary of state lacks authority to assess qualifications of a candidate to determine whether to place a candidate's name on a primary ballot that's according to section sir 115 387 of your state constitution what i'm saying is if the supreme court upholds the ruling out of colorado and what went to court to disqualify donald trump from the ballot so you according to your constitution we need to go to court sir sir let's just be clear first of all you've already said you're not an attorney and you don't know what happened in colorado i was happy to know what happened in colorado sir what i said was that i didn't read through all of the evidence specifically to be able to qualify whether there was hearsay or not to get back to my question you said that you would decide to remove joe biden from the ballot in your state according to your state constitution which i just read to you from it says you need to go to court i'm asking you what you think your strongest argument is and i continue to try to answer your questions and you continue to try to tell me stuff that just isn't true that's not factual sir you made you made an accusation about me not knowing something i'm trying to clarify it for you you can choose to answer the question or just continue deflecting what is the strongest argument you would make in court to remove joe biden from the ballot go amazing listen if you've ever doubted whether or not you're intelligent or if you have what it takes to get through school or in particular law school just keep in mind that if this guy can do it you can do it too you can do anything if this guy graduated law school now that being said though i am thankful that he's choosing to defend this position on national television because it shows you how unserious these threats to remove biden from the ballot are but i just want to show you one last clip because he was very annoyed and he should be because the cnn host kept the pressure on and good on that cnn host and it made him look like shit so pay close attention to the end because as this interview closes just watch this facial reactions here we got to leave the conversation there but i very much appreciate your time you're welcome back anytime sir thank you of course have a good day happy new year stay with cnn new central we're back in just moments seems like somebody's feefies were hurt like he was actually rolling his eyes on national television we're talking about a grown man here in a position of power amazing and i've just got to ask how did you actually expect this to go because you know that you can't actually use your position as Missouri secretary of state to just remove biden from the ballot because you're mad like you know this right literally like you actually are aware that this is something that you don't have the power to do because you haven't presented a legally justifiable well-reasoned argument for doing what you say you're gonna do so you can't just say i'm gonna do it because i'm mad and they did it that's logic that a six-year-old wouldn't even use because by then they'd come up with better reasons to justify their actions but you a grown man in a position of power can't do that and then you're mad at the host for asking questions that you refuse to answer it's just astonishing to me now if he actually cared about democracy he too would support trump being removed from the ballot i get it he's not going to do that because he is a hack and a trump sick event but the reason why you want to remove people like donald trump from the ballot after they engaged in interaction is because we have to protect democracy i get that it feels counterintuitive to say we should protect democracy by removing somebody from the ballot but restricting somebody's right to participate in democracy is essential if that person has either engaged in insurrection or is expressing clear intent to abuse power and violate the constitution we have a duty to protect our democratic system by not letting people participate in it if they are against the system that they want to participate in so protecting democracy means putting limitations on who is qualified to run the same way that tolerance doesn't require us to tolerate intolerance democracy doesn't require us to allow autocrats to participate in democracy now all of this is probably moot anyway because i'd be shocked if our far-right illegitimate supreme court even allowed this to stand but it's just interesting to see how detached from reality the party of law and order has become isn't it