Trump ballot ruling in Colorado sparks death threats: Live

A new statewide poll of Iowa ,with just weeks to go before caucusing begins, shows what could end up being one of the most dramatic shifts in support of the 2024 Republican primary thus far.

Nikki Haley has surged into second place thanks to a 10-point swing in her favour registered by the Emerson College poll between September and December, the former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor clearly benefiting from successive positively-received debate performances and the cratering of support for Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

Here’s John Bowden to break down the numbers.

Speaking of stunning quotes, another person knocking out instant classics right now is the great Robert De Niro, serving up this stinging reminder of what’s at stake at the polls next year a matter of weeks after releasing Killers of the Flower Moon.

The legendary method actor told Rolling Stone: “I think that if Biden was on a gurney and couldn’t move anything but his eyes to blink ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ he’s our person. There’s no way that he’s not the guy to take Trump down.

“We need anything to get rid of Trump. If [Nikki Haley] came in, it could at least throw him off and have her be the nominee. But Biden is the best person at this point.”

Former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway delivered a real Hall of Famer on Fox yesterday, describing Democrats as people who “wake up every morning and they look at the calendar on the iPhone and it says 6 January 2021. The date never changes. And then they get into an electric vehicle and go get an abortion.”

Kelly Rissman rounds up the reaction.

Trump’s estranged former attorney general William Barr was interviewed on CNN yesterday and expressed his disapproval of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision.

“I strongly oppose Donald Trump for the Republican nomination, but I think that this case is legally wrong and untenable,” he said.

“And I think this kind of action of stretching the law, taking these hyper-aggressive positions to try to knock Trump out of the race are counterproductive. They backfire.

“He feeds on grievance just like a fire feeds on oxygen. And this is going to end up as a grievance that helps him.”

Here’s a reminder of how Trump’s fellow contenders for the Republican nomination responded from Ariana Baio.

While most Republicans are fuming about the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision this week, 54 per cent of the 3,500 US citizens surveyed by YouGov yesterday said they agreed with it and only 35 per cent actively disagreed.

Nearly two thirds of Democrats polled, 63 per cent, said they strongly approved, with another 21 per cent only “somewhat” approving.

Among independents, 48 per cent supported the call and 35 per cent were opposed.

Twenty four per cent of GOP voters thought it was right decision (almost a quarter!) but 66 per cent disapproved.

Jena Griswold, Colorado’s secretary of state, says she has received “hundreds if not thousands” of threats since the lawsuit was filed against Trump challenging his eligibility to appear on the 2024 presidential election ballot in the state.

“I’ve been concerned about violence and threats of violence since Donald Trump incited the insurrection,” Griswold told The Huffington Post.

“Within three weeks of it being filed, I received 64 death threats and over 900 non-lethal threats of abuse. I stopped counting after that.”

I don’t think he goes in much for introspection but it’s a good thought.

The US Supreme Court could determine whether Trump is immune from criminal prosecution for crimes connected to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and whether his name can be removed from ballots because of them.

Those two major constitutional questions before the nation’s highest court – where three of the nine justices were appointed by the former president – arrive in the middle of the 2024 race for the presidency and could have resounding impacts beyond Trump’s campaign.

The Supreme Court is considering whether Mr Trump has “presidential immunity” from charges connected to his attempts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, including his failure to stop a mob of his supporters from breaking into the halls of Congress to stop the certification of the results.

His campaign also pledged to go to the Supreme Court following the Colorado ruling that bars him from appearing on 2024 ballots under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which prohibits candidates who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding public office.

Those questions underscore the massive role that courtrooms have played in Trump’s brutal campaign for the White House in 2024, a campaign that frames the 91 criminal charges, fraud lawsuits and sexual abuse and defamation claims against him as evidence of a conspiracy to keep him away from the presidency.

Trump has promised vengeance against his political enemies if he wins another White House term.

Trump’s attorneys have urged the US Supreme Court to reject an attempt to quickly hear a challenge of his “presidential immunity” defence on charges connected to his attempts to overturn 2020 presidential election results.

A filing with the nation’s highest court on Wednesday responds to a request from Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith to expedite consideration of the former president’s “immunity” claim in a federal election conspiracy case that Trump wants thrown out.

The federal judge overseeing that case has rejected those arguments and Trump has vowed to appeal. But prosecutors turned to the Supreme Court for a definitive answer to determine “whether a former President is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office or is constitutionally protected from federal prosecution when he has been impeached but not convicted before the criminal proceedings begin.”

On Wednesday, Trump’s attorneys told the Supreme Court to reject their request and accused prosecutors of trying to “bypass” their appeal.

President Joe Biden has said that there is “no question” that his predecessor Donald Trump supported an insurrection after Colorado’s state Supreme Court ruled that Trump is ineligible for the presidency.

Biden spoke to reporters in Milwaukee and was asked whether he believed the Republican was an insurrectionist.

“It’s self-evident,” he answered. “You saw it all. Now whether the 14th Amendment applies, I’ll let the court make that decision. But he certainly supported an insurrection. There’s no question about it. None. Zero.”

While the Magaverse is furious over the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling, one person who is frankly loving it all is the president’s estranged niece Dr Mary L Trump.

She reacted to Tuesday’s news on X with a couple of gleeful ketchup posts in reference to the former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s amusing revelation to the House Jan 6 committee last year that Trump threw his lunch at the wall in anger when he learned that his then-attorney general Bill Barr had admitted there was no evidence to substantiate his boss’s bogus election fraud narrative.

If you’re interested in Trump’s rebel niece turned nemesis, here’s a profile.