Nikki Haley urges Supreme Court to keep Trump on ballot, says she will beat him ‘fair and square’

Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley said during a Fox News town hall that former President Trump should not be taken off the ballot and predicted she will defeat him “fair and square” without outside help from Democrats in Colorado and other states.

“No, he shouldn’t be taken off the ballot and the Supreme Court needs to rule quickly before other states start to do this,” Haley said during a Fox News town hall in Iowa on Monday night. “This is one of those, don’t open a door if you don’t want to see what happens this is a door we don’t need to open. I will defeat President Trump fair and square. I don’t need anybody throwing him off the ballot to do it.”

Haley received applause for that remark before she continued. 

“But this started back with COVID. The idea that you have people telling people what to do, how to think, what to how to live, all of that, that’s wrong. If they can do this to him, they’ll do it to someone else. We can’t have others saying, I don’t think he should be on the ballot. I think Americans can decide on their own whether they want him to be on the ballot or not.“

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The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear arguments on whether former President Trump will be on the Colorado Republican presidential primary ballot after the state’s Supreme Court voted to remove him from the ballot in December citing the 14th Amendment and Trump’s alleged role in the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol which Democrats have referred to as an “insurrection.”

The justices said they will hear the case on an expedited basis, with arguments on Feb. 8.

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The historical hearing will consider the meaning of the 14th Amendment, which bars people who “engaged in insurrection” from holding public office. 

The amendment was adopted in 1868, following the Civil War.

Maine Democrat Shenna Bellows also recently announced that Maine was removing Trump from the 2024 ballot which the Trump campaign has appealed in court.

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More than two dozen states have filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court urging the nation’s highest court to keep former President Trump on the Colorado Republican presidential ballot and warning that failing to do so could throw the 2024 presidential election “into chaos.”

Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw and Sarah Rumpf contributed to this report