Ron DeSantis is weighing in on the exclusion of Donald Trump from the Maine presidential ballot, suggesting that President Joe Biden could be justifiably subject to similar sanction in Florida.
“Well obviously, to have one executive branch official unilaterally striking someone off the ballot is not an appropriate interpretation of the 14th Amendment,” DeSantis said Friday on Fox News.
In Florida, what, are we going to have Biden struck off the ballot because he’s allowed an invasion of 8 million people, including enemy nations have sent people in? This could just be, end up being a tit for tat.”
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, an appointed Democrat, announced her decision Thursday. She said Trump’s “false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters” was a means to “direct them to the Capitol to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power.”
DeSantis doesn’t expect that decision to stand.
“I think it’ll get reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court. I think it’s more of a stunt that you have a very liberal person in that position, who’s just trying to play for cheap clicks. But ultimately, I don’t think it’s grounded in a proper interpretation of the Constitution,” he said Friday.
The Florida Governor qualified for the Maine ballot last month, and he led active candidates not named Trump in the sole poll of the race, taken back in June. So at least in theory, he could benefit from a Trump-free ballot in the state’s open Primary.
Regardless of what happens, expect DeSantis to compete. When Trump was excluded from the Colorado ballot, the Governor said he had no intention of standing down in that election. Though he wasn’t asked Friday about a boycott of Maine, presumably the same condition holds true there.
Friday was the first time DeSantis specifically said Florida could strike Biden, though he mentioned the concept more abstractly during a Thursday interview on Fox.
“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,” he said on “The Ingraham Angle.”
“It opens up Pandora’s box. Can you have a Republican Secretary of State disqualify Biden from the ballot because he’s let in 8 million people illegally in a massive invasion, including from enemies of our country? Places like Iran, China and the Middle East have poured in with his knowledge and assent basically. So it really opens up Pandora’s box.”
Ironically, Florida Democrats will exclude Biden opponents from this year’s Primary ballot, given the failure of the campaigns to show up at a state convention this year for nomination purposes. DeSantis has maintained silence on that decision, however.
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