Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft melted down when pressed to justify his recent threat to boot President Joe Biden from his state’s primary ballot if the Supreme Court allows Donald Trump to be removed in other states.
Towards the end of a contentious Monday afternoon interview, CNN anchor Boris Sanchez began to lose patience with the Republican state official, repeatedly grilling Ashcroft to come up with a rational explanation for the move.
Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review Colorado’s decision to ban Trump from that state’s primary ballot because he engaged in “insurrection” based on his actions surrounding the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, Ashcroft took to social media on Friday to issue a warning.
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“What has happened in Colorado & Maine is disgraceful & undermines our republic,” he tweeted. “While I expect the Supreme Court to overturn this, if not, Secretaries of State will step in & ensure the new legal standard for @realDonaldTrump applies equally to @JoeBiden!”
Ashcroft later told NBC News that his threat was to “remind people of how severe this is” and that if the Supreme Court doesn’t stop the Colorado decision, which relies on an interpretation of the 14th Amendment, “chaos” will ensue. When asked by NBC how he would disqualify Biden from his state’s ballot, Ashcroft said the president has “let an invasion unstopped into our country from the border,” suggesting Biden’s immigration policies somehow amount to insurrection.
During his lengthy conversation with Sanchez, the GOP secretary struggled to come up with a coherent response, especially when the CNN anchor continued to push forward with follow-up questions.
Having read up on Missouri’s state laws, Sanchez first got under Ashcroft’s skin by noting the state constitution specifically says that “the secretary of state lacks authority to assess qualifications of a candidate, to determine whether to place a candidate’s name on a primary ballot.”
After Ashcroft huffed that Sanchez was “not an attorney”—and said he would only go down this route if the Supreme Court upheld Colorado’s ruling—Sanchez once again cited Missouri constitutional law before pressing the secretary to present a better argument.
“And I continue to try to answer your questions, and you continue to try to tell me stuff that just isn’t true,” Ashcroft grumbled.
“I’m wondering, though, what would then be your justification for removing Joe Biden from the ballot in Missouri?” Sanchez wondered at one point. “Has he engaged in your mind in some kind of insurrection?”
Ashcroft countered by saying “there have been allegations that he’s engaged in insurrection,” prompting Sanchez to pounce and ask for examples. The flustered Missouri official then complained that the anchor kept interrupting him because he was “scared of the truth,” an accusation Sanchez flatly denied.
“Oh, I’m not terrified of the truth at all. It seems like you might be. Let’s hear what you have to say,” Sanchez fired back. “What did Joe Biden do in your mind that equates to insurrection? What allegations are you talking about?”
Eventually, Ashcroft vaguely cited statements made by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, both of whom have suggested that Biden could be removed from their states’ ballots due to Biden’s handling of the United States’ southern border.
“They made allegations and all it took for the president, for former President Trump to be taken off the ballot in Colorado and in Maine were allegations,” Ashcroft asserted. “We should not be a country that removes people from the ballot based on allegations. I think you can agree with that.”
When Sanchez attempted to point out that there’s a major difference between Trump’s actions— which have led to criminal indictments over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election—and what Republicans are trying to claim about the president, Ashcroft accused Sanchez of sticking by his “guy” Biden.
“My guy, Joe Biden is not my guy,” Sanchez retorted. “You don’t know who my guy is. The point is, sir, the point is that it’s not clear whether the 14th Amendment is self-executing or not. In other words, it doesn’t matter to a court at that point whether there was a conviction of Donald Trump for insurrection or not. That is a debate for the Supreme Court to have.”
