Nov. 21, 2023 - Epoch Times
10:15
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| Good evening, and right before we dive into the main story, I'll quickly mention that this past Saturday, it was actually the three-year anniversary of Facts Matter. | |
| We started this channel back on November 18th of the year 2020. | |
| And what's interesting is that I went back to reminisce on some of our older content... | |
| But wouldn't you know it? | |
| What I found was that the YouTube algorithm had actually deleted several dozen of our earlier episodes. | |
| Just like that. | |
| Some keywords showed up in those episodes, the system didn't like them, and that's it. | |
| That information is no longer available to the public. | |
| This is, I guess, just the world we find ourselves in now. | |
| And so, if you are sick and tired of all the censorship on this wonderful platform, and if you're looking for a source of actual honest news, well, consider checking out The Epoch Times, because we recently extended our awesome sale and subscriptions. | |
| Just 25 cents a week for the whole year, which, if you do the math, works itself out to just be a single dollar a month. | |
| And so if you're indeed looking for a source of honest news, and if you've been maybe on the fence about subscribing to the Epoch Times, well, now's a great chance to try it out, right in time for Black Friday. | |
| I'll throw a link to the sale page. | |
| It'll be right there at the top of the description box below. | |
| I hope you check it out. | |
| Now, diving into today's main topic. | |
| One of the more, you can say, unusual strategies that people across the country are using against President Trump in the lead-up to the 2024 race is to actually get him barred from appearing on the ballot. | |
| Because without ballot access, people would essentially have to treat him as a totally dark horse candidate, meaning they would actually have to write his name into the ballot as their choice. | |
| This approach, it would undoubtedly take several percentage points at least away from his total tally. | |
| And the rationale that people are using to attempt to bar President Trump from appearing on the ballots, well, it lies in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. | |
| And the 14th Amendment is a rather long amendment covering a lot of different topics, but for the purposes of today's discussion, let me briefly read to you section 3 of the 14th Amendment. | |
| Here's how it goes. | |
| shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. | |
| And, as you likely guessed, this amendment to the U.S. Constitution was enacted shortly after the U.S. Civil War, in order to keep former members of the Confederacy out of government. | |
| However, in the modern context, opponents of President Trump are making the argument that he was involved in an insurrection, and therefore, as per the 14th Amendment, he should be barred from serving in office. | |
| Now, on a previous episode, we are ready to discuss how one of these attempts to get him banned from the ballot nationally was rebuked by the U.S. Supreme Court. | |
| If you'd like to check out that earlier episode, I'll throw a link to it down in the description box below this video, which I should mention is that little box right below those like and subscribe buttons, both of which I hope you take a super quick moment to smash. | |
| However, getting back to the topic, that earlier legal rebuke at the federal level, well, it did not stop these various individual anti-Trump organizations from taking their fight to the local level. | |
| And so, looking across America, you have 31 different cases, having been filed across 26 different states, all looking to get Trump off the ballot in those individual municipalities. | |
| You can see a map of where these lawsuits have appeared up on your screen right now. | |
| Now, in each one of those states, there has been at least one lawsuit filed looking to get Trump kicked off the ballot. | |
| However, what appears to be happening is that this whole effort is failing one state at a time, with many judges, some of whom even agree that Trump did engage in an insurrection, still refusing to take him off the ballot. | |
| For instance, one of these efforts was taking place over in the state of Colorado. | |
| Specifically, over in Colorado, you had, quote, Six local voters, represented by activist group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, who sued Colorado Secretary of State Jenna Griswold, demanding that the election official take President Trump off the state's primary ballot. | |
| And after many months of legal back and forth, this case made it all the way to trial, wherein, for about a full week, you had witnesses take the stand and give their testimony in order to prove that January 6th constituted an insurrection, That President Trump had quote-unquote engaged in it and that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment applied to the office of the U.S. President. | |
| On the flip side, however, lawyers for President Trump, they were making the counter-argument that January 6th was not an insurrection, that President Trump did not engage in it regardless, and lastly, that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment did not apply to the office of the U.S. President. | |
| These were the two competing arguments. | |
| And after about a week-long trial, followed by deliberations, the judge in the case ruled in favor of President Trump, although her ruling was rather interesting. | |
| That's because Judge Sarah Wallace, who for your reference was appointed to the bench by Colorado's Democrat governor, she ruled that January 6th did constitute an insurrection, that President Trump did engage in it. | |
| However, despite all that, she found that the 14th Amendment does not apply to presidents. | |
| Here's specifically what she wrote in her court order. | |
| Quote, The petitioners argued that officer of the United States would certainly cover the highest office in the federal government, but there was scant evidence that that was the case. | |
| The authors of the 14th Amendment specifically listed offices starting with the highest levels and descending thereafter. | |
| To lump the presidency in with any other civil or military office is odd indeed, and very troubling to the court because Section 3 explicitly lists all federal elected positions except the president and vice president. | |
| Also, during the trial period of this lawsuit, President Trump's lawyers argued that there are five other instances within the U.S. Constitution where the president of the United States is listed separately from other officers, implying that the language of the Constitution does not always include the president when referring to officers of the government. | |
| The judge agreed with this argument, writing in her order that, quote... | |
| The court agrees with the interveners, meaning Trump's lawyers, that all five of those constitutional provisions lead towards the same conclusion, that the drafters of the Section 3 of the 14th Amendment did not intend to include the president as an officer of the United States. | |
| The court holds that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment does not apply to Trump. | |
| And as such, the judge refused to remove Trump from the Colorado ballot. | |
| A similar situation then took place over in Minnesota, wherein you had a liberal group called Free Speech for People. | |
| They sued on behalf of eight local voters, arguing that, quote, the Secretary of State putting President Trump on the ballot would be an error as per the 14th Amendment. | |
| However, after the state Supreme Court of Minnesota listened to arguments from both sides, they decided ultimately to dismiss the case without prejudice, with the chief justice of the court writing this, quote, There is no error to correct here as to the presidential nomination primary and petitioners' other claims regarding the general election are not ripe. | |
| ripe, the petition must be dismissed. | |
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| It's 866- You then had a similar case playing itself out over in the state of Michigan. | |
| In that state, you actually had three separate lawsuits all aiming to take Trump off the ballot and all citing the 14th Amendment. | |
| However, the Michigan State judge overseeing the case, he dismissed all these claims, writing that, And indeed, as per this court order, exactly one week ago today, the Michigan Secretary of State did indeed put President Trump's name on the official list. | |
| You had a similar dismissal over in the state of New Hampshire as well. | |
| And so in practical terms, these cases are falling like dominoes, one by one. | |
| However, despite that fact, because these are state-level cases rather than federal-level cases, each one of them has to still be adjudicated independently. | |
| And so, regardless of the fact that many of these cases have been dismissed for one legal reason or another, there are still in total 15 states that have pending cases which have not received a ruling one way or the other. | |
| You can see those states up on your screen. | |
| And so, what this means in practical terms is that in the months leading up to the actual election, well, Trump's legal team will have to continue dealing with all these cases throughout the whole country, which is perhaps one reason that people are referring to these lawsuits as a form of lawfare, which is warfare through the use of lawsuits. | |
| If you'd like to go deeper into any of the cases that we discussed in today's episode, I'll throw all my research notes. | |
| They'll be down in the description box below this video for you to check out if you're the type of person that likes to dig into the details. | |
| And lastly, if you're watching this episode and you're thinking to yourself, Man, I love this content. | |
| I just wish Roman would put out more episodes every single week. | |
| Well, you're in luck, because I do. | |
| Over on EpicTV, our awesome no-censorship video platform, I publish anywhere between 1 to 3 exclusive episodes of Facts Matter. | |
| And so, if you'd like to watch some extra episodes of Facts Matter every single week, including a huge backlog from the last three years, a backlog which, I should mention, the YouTube algorithm cannot touch, well, you can check it out over on EpicTV. | |
| I'll throw a link to the sale page. | |
| It'll be right there at the top of the description box below. | |
| And as I mentioned at the top of the episode, we're currently running a special, just 25 cents a week for the whole year, which, if you do the math, works itself out to just be a single dollar a month. | |
| And so that's all to say that right now is a phenomenal time for you to try The Epoch Times for yourself. | |
| Again, that link is right there at the top of the description box below. | |
| I hope you click on it, and I hope that you join us over on the website. | |
| And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from The Epoch Times. | |
| Stay informed. |
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