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Donald Trump accused Joe Biden of being an "insurrectionist," after the former president was disqualified from running for the White House in Colorado.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, suggested that Biden may have violated the Constitution's insurrection clause. He also criticized the president over rising levels of illegal immigration at the southern border, claims he "weaponzied" the FBI and Department of Justice against the Republican, and over the controversial August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
His attack came after a historic ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court that banned Trump from running for president in the state for violating Section 3 of the 14th Amendment during the January 6 riot. The amendment, introduced in the wake of the Civil War, states that a person who "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" after taking an oath of office to support the Constitution should be barred from running for office again.
Trump is set to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority bench, including three justices nominated by the former president. Trump has long claimed that all the legal battles he is involved in, including the four criminal cases in which he has pleaded not guilty to 91 charges, are politically motivated "witch hunts" that aim to stop him from winning the 2024 election.
"Crooked Joe Biden is the Insurrectionist because he let millions of unknown people come recklessly and unchecked through our insane 'Open' Border, let a war begin in the Middle East and Ukraine, Weaponized our DOJ & FBI, SURRENDERED in Afghanistan when we could have left with dignity and strength —the most embarrassing event in the history of our Country, and is destroying America with the GREEN NEW SCAM," Trump wrote.
Following the ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court, Biden said that Trump "certainly supported an insurrection" when his supporters stormed the Capitol during January 6 while supporting the Republican's false claims there was widespread voter fraud at the 2020 election.
"Whether the 14th Amendment applies or not, we'll let the court make that decision," Biden told reporters in Milwaukee. "But he certainly supported an insurrection. There's no question about it. None. Zero. And he seems to be doubling down on it."
The White House has been contacted for comment via email.
In the wake of the Colorado court decision, a number of Republican figures touted the idea of removing Biden from other ballots in retaliation.
In an interview with Fox News, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick proposed withdrawing Biden from the state's 2024 ballot for "allowing eight million people to cross the border" during his time in the White House, which Patrick argued had disrupted Texas "more than anything anyone else has done in recent history."
The former president's Truth Social attack on Biden was in reply to one of his supporters sharing his previous posts on Twitter, now called X, during the January 6 attack where Trump asked "everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful" and to "support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement" as the riot was taking place.
Trump's X account was suspended in the wake of the January 6 attack in 2021 over fears he would use the platform to incite further violence.
In a January 8, 2021, post on X, Trump told his supporters that he "would not be going" to the inauguration of Biden on January 20, 2021, in Washington D.C. The platform said while explaining the suspension that such posts from Trump "can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence."
Trump's account was reinstated by Elon Musk in November 2022 after the Tesla and SpaceX CEO's $44 billion takeover of the social media site.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, and Florida ... Read more