![CNN's senior legal analyst Elie Honig sparred with CNN's John Avlon after the latter tried to claim Trump can be knocked off the ballot in Colorado under the 14th Amendment. [Screenshot CNN]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-30-at-10.32.38-AM-e1698676417304.png "CNN's senior legal analyst Elie Honig sparred with CNN's John Avlon after the latter tried to claim Trump can be knocked off the ballot in Colorado under the 14th Amendment. [Screenshot CNN]")
CNN’s senior legal analyst Elie Honig sparred with CNN’s John Avlon after the latter tried to claim Trump can be knocked off the ballot in Colorado under the 14th Amendment.
A trial begins Monday in Colorado District Court to determine whether Trump can be removed from the ballot. A left-leaning group filed a lawsuit that argues Trump cannot run because Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibits certain government officials who took an oath to the Constitution and then “engaged in an insurrection” from holding office.
Avlon argued first that the case has standing and people shouldn’t simply dismiss the possibility of removing Trump “because it seems politically difficult.”
Honig agreed that while the Constitution explicitly disqualifies someone from holding office if they encouraged or participated in a rebellion, “the Constitution nor Congress in the 150 years since that amendment has been passed told us how this works.”
Hong then argued that if the state-level judge rules against Trump, the “political backlash will go in Trump’s favor.” (RELATED: Top State Election Officials Say They Will Defer To The Courts On Removing Trump From 2024 Ballot)
“Irrelevant,” Avlon interjected.
“Hold on,” Honig shot back.
“Utterly irrelevant,” Avlon said.
“If we end up in a situation where an unelected state judge says, ‘I’m removing him from the ballot, millions of voters in Colorado, you’ll only have one name on the ballot, it’s Joe Biden, because I individually have found that Donald Trump committed insurrection,’ the other thing that’s going to happen is it’s going to get reversed on appeal.”
“It’s not going to stand,” Honig continued.
Avlon argued the “self-executing” claim means that it doesn’t require an act of Congress to enforce, with Honig not having the chance to respond as the segment ended.