You won't believe what Trump said—now it's haunting him

In a pivotal turn of events, former President Donald Trump finds himself barred from the 2024 primary ballot in Maine, marking the second state, after Colorado, to take such decisive action.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, making the announcement on Thursday, December 28, cited video evidence that brought Trump’s own words under scrutiny, as reported by Newsweek on Friday, December 29, 2023.

Bellows, invoking Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, linked Trump’s disqualification directly to his role in the January 6 insurrection.

Legal expert Elie Honig weighed in, noting that although the decision was not rendered by a lawyer, it was meticulously crafted and consulted with legal minds.

Former President Donald Trump, seen here greeting supporters in Des Moines, Iowa on June 1, 2023, faced disqualification based on Bellows’ interpretation of documents and unconventional sources like YouTube clips and news reports.

Bellows, chosen and elected by the state legislature without a democratic vote, defended her ruling with documents and unorthodox sources.

The disqualification is rooted in video evidence presented by a bipartisan group of state legislators, showcasing Trump’s explicit encouragement of supporters to forcibly remove protesters, dating as far back as early 2016.

Despite efforts by Trump’s legal team to dismiss older comments as irrelevant, Bellows found substantial merit in the presented evidence.

One notable video from February 2016 in Las Vegas captures Trump stating, “You know what they used to do to a guy like that in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks.”

Another clip from November 2015 in Worcester, Massachusetts, features Trump commenting on a protester’s reaction to a mention of food stamps.

While facing an appeal, Bellows temporarily halted the ruling, with expectations that the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately weigh in on this consequential and precedent-setting case.

The disqualification, fueled by Trump’s own words captured on video, introduces a fresh perspective to the ongoing scrutiny surrounding his involvement in the Capitol insurrection, raising profound questions about the impact of political rhetoric on eligibility in the democratic process.