America's Talking - Michigan Supreme Court Allows Trump to Be On State’s 2024 Ballot

Episode Date: December 29, 2023

The Michigan Supreme Court has refused to hear a case that would have attempted to ban Donald Trump from being on the state's 2024 presidential primary ballot. In November, Michigan Court of Appeals Justice James Redford ruled Trump would remain on the primary ballot. The state's highest court declined to hear an appeal. There has been a nationwide movement to have Trump removed from state ballots across the country, alleging he incited an insurrection against the government on Jan. 6, 2021, during a speech he gave at the U.S. Capitol. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings and welcome to the final America in Focus of 2023. America in Focus is powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, Vice President of News and Content at the Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. Joining me again today is the Center Squares Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief Casey, Casey, since I was out last week, a belated Merry Christmas to you and your family, and a happy New Year. Same to you, Dan. I hope you enjoyed the time off.

It's working every other week. thing. How is that going for you? I think you got that confused, Casey. That's your stick. Oh, am I projecting? I'm projecting. Yes, that's not mine. Casey, we're recording this on Friday, December 28th. 2003 has been one crazy year.

For the first time in American history of former U.S. president has been indicted multiple times on criminal charges. I, of course, I'm talking about Donald Trump, who faces not one, not two, not even just three but four criminal indictments, telling nearly 100 separate charges. Despite that, Trump is far and away the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president heading into an election year in 2024. At the same time, the sitting president, Democrat Joe Biden, faces an impeachment inquiry into allegations he participated in and benefited from his son's sketchy overseas business dealings. Biden, who is 81 years old, he also faces.

questions about his age and his mental and physical capacity as he seeks re-election next year. Casey, let's face that these major headlines that dominated the news cycle this year are only going to grow as 2024 gets underway. There is seemingly new news breaking regularly on all of these fronts. Bring us up to speed, Casey. Yeah, that's right. I mean, the news cycle did not take the holidays off. We can say that for sure. Both former President Trump and current President Joe Biden are facing and their own legal issues that will carry well into the new year, 2024, which of course is an election year for the president. So we have major unfoldings, of course, in Colorado, and you alluded to some of this and Michigan,

where respective Supreme Courts have decided one in favor and one against of removing Trump from the ballot. Now, I think it's not on the pale at all to say we can expect to see similar rulings coming out of other states. Similar contradictory rulings, because Colorado's kicked them off the ballot. but Michigan's Supreme Court has not. In Colorado, that's going to be appealed, of course. I'm sorry, Casey. Go ahead.

No, no, I accept your apology, Dan. No, it's totally fine. It's a good point to make. When we're going to see this probably play out in other states, at least the legal challenges be filed, there's plenty of people who have an axe to grind, both in the Republican and the Democratic Party against the former president, Donald Trump. The interesting caveat, though, is that we've reported about this at the center square.com is that this Colorado ruling, there's a good chance it's actually going to go to the Supreme

Court will hear it and take it up. Or a similar ruling or combine all of these rulings and decisions and cases into one decision where the Supreme Court settles it for all 50 states. Now, there is a sort of deadline because in Colorado, the first week of January, the Secretary of State for Colorado has to certify the ballot, right? That's the deadline that their state has to. certify the ballot. And so there is a sort of impetus, a fast-tracking potential of this ruling because of Colorado's deadline for certification of the ballot. And whatever they rule there would

have broad implications. If the Supreme Court shuts down Colorado's decision, it'll probably put this issue to rest. The states will know that they can't remove Trump from the ballot this time around because of his alleged ties to January 6. But if the Supreme Court allows what Colorado did to fly, either by, you know, agreeing with them or just by deciding not to rule on the issue, which is very possible. They're going to open up the floodgates to a lot of other states trying to do the same thing. And the question will be, one, how many of the states that try and succeed in removing Trump are actually swing states? Because, you know, there's some states Trump probably is never going to win. So if he's not on the ballot, it's not going to make or break the race.

But a state like Michigan, which is one that, you know, has decided in Trump's favor, that could be a big swing state for Trump and a state that he did win when he beat Hillary Clinton in 2016. So which state is doing what will matter, which is a battleground state, and how the Supreme Court rules is all going to kind of swirl together here into a very significant case for 2024. Yeah, well, let's talk about some of those swing states. Casey, a new morning consult poll that we reported on at the center square.com this week, has Trump with, with, with, some leads over Biden in those states, including in Michigan, including in Wisconsin, including in Arizona, in North Carolina, all swing states in Georgia as well. That doesn't, granted, we're still, you know, the presidential election is November 24, still about 10 months away from that time. But as of right now, Trump seems to have an advantage. Yeah, and it's probably no

surprised that this is why we're maybe seeing some of these legal challenges. Of course, there's a lot of attention put on the president's overall approval rating. Of course, President Biden is underwater on his approval rating. More voters disapprove of the job he's doing than approve. I wrote at the swoonerswear.com about a Monmouth University poll, which found, I believe, a record low 34% approval rating for the president. So he's hitting a new low. There's a lot of attention put on that, you know, for good reason. And in the national polling, Biden leads Trump actually. by a few points on the national polling. But what really matters the most is, as you said, these swing state polls because, you know, you can, Republicans have done it a couple times

now where you can lose the popular vote and still win the White House. And so these, it doesn't really matter if you have a couple of points lead in the national poll against someone if they can beat you at all the swing states, which is kind of President Biden's problem right now. As you said, you know, who decides what the swing state is a little bit arbitrary, but North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada, Michigan, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. Seven swing states that were where Biden is trailing. And it's an average of about a little over five percentage points, which for most polls is more than the margin of error. I mean, that's one metric is how many states seven, which would really be a route of President Biden.

If he lost all seven of those states, it would be a cleanup. Some of those states are states that Trump lost last time around, right? Arizona, for example, where Trump is winning, that's a state that he lost. So in, you know, Georgia, for instance, in the state where Republicans have really suffered in recent years. In the Senate, for example, what could be thought of as maybe a red or purple state has two Democratic senators in Georgia. So these are definitely swing states, toss-up states, where Trump is doing well, even

where he didn't do as well in 2016. So this is definitely, and it's not within the margin of error, more than five points. So it's a big deal. And as I mentioned up front, too, you've got the impeachment inquiry into President Biden ongoing in the U.S. House controlled. by a slight majority of Republicans. You've got these criminal cases against President Trump. There's going to be developments in all of these things as 2024 gets underway.

So who knows what happens in those cases and how it affects voters and whether or not any voters are going to change their mind. For example, Trump is convicted or if Biden is in fact impeached. It's just, Casey, I've been covering elections, presidential elections for a long long time. 2024 is going to be far and away the most bizarre presidential election year that I can ever remember. I'll give you the final comment.

Casey, we're just about out of time. Yeah, I just want to throw in one quick news update here, which is that President Biden is under investigation now for whether he is interfering in allegedly interfering in the investigation into his son Hunter and oversees business dealings, which of course is the source of his impeachment inquiry. There's questions about how Hunter Biden may or may not have known about the subpoena that came to him ahead of time. So that investigation into the Biden family is ongoing. It seems every week there's a new update, a new piece of evidence that comes out making that legal case stronger. And of course, the political argument against him, which is just the

court of public opinion, even tougher for the current president. Of course, listeners can keep up with all of these very important stories at the center square. Thank you for being with us in 2023. We look forward to informing you further in 2024. For Casey Harper, I'm Dan McAulb. Please subscribe. Thanks for listening. Knowledge is power, and you deserve to know what happens in your state government. That's why the nonprofit Franklin News Foundation is bringing you straight news journalism through the Center Square, reporting on state authorities and publishing stories that show where your money goes and who spends it. By supporting the Center Square,

you can track politicians' use of taxpayer money and demand transparency from elected officials. This is how we can equip everyday Americans to hold their government accountable. Become a supporter of Franklin Today at franklinnews.org slash donate.