Chris Christie claims Trump is now a ‘martyr’ after Maine ballot decision

Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie claimed Maine’s secretary of state’s recent decision to keep former President Donald Trump off the 2024 primary ballots has made Trump a “martyr.”

The state’s lead election official claimed that Trump violated Section Three of the 14th Amendment and was, therefore, ineligible to be president. The third section of the amendment bans those who previously swore to uphold the United States Constitution but have since participated in an insurrection or rebellion from holding federal, state, or nationally elected office.

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“It makes him a martyr,” Christie said on CNN Friday. “You know, he’s very good at playing ‘Poor me, poor me,’ he’s always complaining. The poor billionaire from New York who’s spending everybody else’s money to pay his legal fees.”

Maine is now the second state to keep Trump off the ballot after the Colorado Supreme Court made the same decision last week. Trump’s campaign said the former president will appeal both decisions, and the topic is expected to be taken to the United States Supreme Court.

“We are witnessing, in real-time, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told the Hill. “Make no mistake, these partisan election interference efforts are a hostile assault on American democracy.”

Other Trump opponents for the 2024 Republican nomination have also weighed in on the recent ballot moves, including Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who warned that the ruling could “open Pandora’s Box.”

“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 this country has abided by for over 200 years,” DeSantis said on Thursday.

The majority of Maine’s congressional delegation has also slammed the state’s decision, and state Republicans have threatened to impeach Secretary of State Shenna Bellows over the decision.

Bellows said she would have preferred the U.S. Supreme Court weigh in on the issue but was required by state law to reach a decision on Trump staying on the state ballot this week.

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Maine election law allows any registered voter to challenge the eligibility of a candidate and requires the secretary of state to hold a public hearing on the challenge. They are then given a short window to issue a decision, which would have closed this week.

“I did not choose to hold this hearing or issue a decision. I was duty-bound under Maine election laws and the Constitution,” Bellows told NBC News. “I am mindful that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”