Biden ‘fine’ with Trump on ballot ahead of major Supreme Court decision

WASHINGTON — President Biden said Tuesday that he’s “fine” with former President Donald Trump appearing on state presidential ballots in November after Colorado and Maine barred him — triggering a high-stakes Supreme Court battle set for next week.

“As far as I’m concerned, that’s fine,” Biden, 81, told reporters as he left the White House for a fundraising trip to South Florida.

Trump, 77, leads Biden in most recent national and swing-state polls and Republicans have decried efforts to remove him from the ballot as anti-democratic.

The ex-president has been removed from ballots by officials citing the 14th Amendment’s bar on officeholders who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion,” which was enacted after the Civil War.

In December, Colorado’s Supreme Court disqualified Trump from the state’s March 5 Republican primary after ruling 4-3 the 45th president had violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, known as the Insurrection Clause.

Days later, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows also ordered that Trump be taken off ballots, though her ruling was stayed by a court ahead of the Supreme Court arguments set for Feb. 8.

Illinois’ election board was also due to hold a hearing Tuesday to consider removing Trump in that state.

The House of Representatives impeached Trump in for “incitement of insurrection” following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in which thousands of the former president’s supporters stormed the Capitol to stop certification of Biden’s victory in the Electoral College.

The Senate voted to acquit Trump after he left office in a 57-43 vote that fell short of the two-thirds threshold to convict him. Some Republicans, including party leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), blamed Trump for the riot but said they believed only sitting office-holders could face a Senate trial.

Trump faces federal criminal charges for attempting to reverse his 2020 election defeat, as well as state charges in Georgia, but those cases do not specifically charge him with insurrection.

Trump has all but secured the Republican presidential nomination after victories in early-voting Iowa and New Hampshire and large leads in forthcoming contests.