DeSantis Criticizes Maine Decision of Trump Ballot Exclusion, Says It ‘Opens Pandora’s Box'

In a recent Fox News interview, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis slammed Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows' decision to remove former President Donald Trump from the state's 2024 primary ballot. The move, which invoked the 14th Amendment's "insurrection clause," sparked a national debate over the merging of constitutional principles and political eligibility.

DeSantis, a major Republican figure and potential GOP presidential candidate in 2024, slammed the ruling, saying it "opens Pandora's Box" and calls into question the fundamental values of constitutional due process that the US has sustained for over two centuries. He said, "Can you have a Republican secretary of state disqualify Biden from the ballot?"

"The idea that one bureaucrat in an executive position can simply unilaterally disqualify someone from office, that turns on its head every notion of constitutional due process that this country has always abided by for over 200 years," DeSantis said in a Fox News interview with Jason Chaffetz, according to The Hill.

The Maine judgment follows a similar decision by the Colorado Supreme Court, which also prohibited Trump from being on the state's primary ballot. DeSantis has claimed that the Colorado ruling was part of a wider plot to rally Republican support behind Trump in the primaries, as reported by The New York Times. He had said that Trump's indictments had “sucked all the oxygen” out of the race.

However, DeSantis, who believes the Maine decision will be overturned by the Supreme Court, urged fellow Republicans to focus on holding President Biden accountable for what he sees as "failed policies." He emphasized the need for the party to focus on solving the Democrats' failings rather than being embroiled in legal battles over Trump.

"I don’t think that this ultimately will be legally sustained by the US Supreme Court. But I do think that this is going to be a constant throughout the election year, where there’s going to be different parts of these legal cases that are going to be front and center," DeSantis said.

"I think that we win when we hold Biden accountable and talk about the issues that matter to the American people,” DeSantis added. "So I think the Democrats, they want the election to be about all these other issues. They do not want to face accountability for their failed policies."

According to the New York Times, DeSantis' opinions were shared by other Trump challengers in the Republican presidential primary. Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur running against Trump, went on to say that he would withdraw from any primary if Trump was not on the ballot, and he urged other Republican candidates to do the same.

Meanwhile, the Michigan Supreme Court voted in favor of allowing Trump to remain on the state's Republican primary ballot. This decision contrasted a recent Colorado verdict that removed Trump from their ballot, starting the conversation about the interpretation of constitutional sections relating to insurgency and eligibility for public office.