An effort by some Republicans in New Hampshire to bar former President Donald Trump from appearing on the 2024 ballot following the January 2021 Capitol riot are not likely to go anywhere.
On Friday, Secretary of State David Scanlan met with New Hampshire attorney Bryant “Corky” Messner to discuss Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that public officials are not eligible to hold federal office if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the United States.
Far-left Democrats and their aligned organizations have argued that Trump engaged in “insurrection” on Jan. 6, 2021, for giving a speech they claim riled up his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol Building. Trump never encouraged such action, nor did he sanction it; in fact, during his speech, he told his supporters to “march peacefully” to the Capitol to lodge their protest over the 2020 election results.
Scanlan openly suggested he would seek to keep Trump off the ballot, telling the Boston Globe he planned to discuss the issue with New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella, also a Republican.
“Not being a lawyer and not wanting to make a decision in a vacuum, I will be soliciting some legal opinions on what is appropriate or not before I make any decision,” Scanlan told the Globe. “I have some in-house staff attorneys that are election experts. I will be asking the attorney general’s office for their input. And ultimately, whatever is decided is probably going to require some judicial input.”
However, Gov. Chris Sununu, who has been critical of Trump and has said he doesn’t believe Trump can win next year, said he and other state GOP leaders have no plans to assist in any way in keeping the former president off the ballot.
“The Governor first heard about this effort over the weekend. The Governor is not making any attempt or assisting any effort to keep anyone off the ballot. He has not spoken to and has nothing to do with Mr. Messner’s actions,” Sununu spokesman Ben Vihstadt told Fox News in a statement.
Vihstadt added that “providing he follows the same rules as all other candidates, the Governor doesn’t expect ballot access will be a problem for the former president.”
Turning Point USA’s founder Charlie Kirk urged listeners of his show earlier this week to inundate Scanlan’s office with complaints, which they did.
“I don’t care if you live in New Hampshire or not. It should be a nationwide movement of people contacting, because this impacts everybody,” Kirk said. “We’re gonna break the phone lines and say, ‘Who do you think you are for even entertaining this?’”
Kirk also told Breitbart News, “We must stay vigilant against any and all efforts to stop Trump from being on the primary ballot.”
“The grassroots are watching and active,” Kirk added.
Messner said his motivation for bringing it up is “purely as a constitutional conservative,” adding that he believes it’s in “everybody’s interest if this gets to the U.S. Supreme Court as quickly as possible.”
He said Scanlan told him “that without some judicial guidance, that he really didn’t feel like he can make a decision regarding the 14th Amendment, Section 3. And I agree with him.”
