Liz Cheney backs push to bar Trump from ballot under 14th Amendment

Liz Cheney is adding her voice to the movement to bar Donald Trump from the ballot, saying Friday that there’s “no question” his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, fall under the so-called insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment.

“I don’t believe he should be part of our political process,” Cheney said. “And this is a process that will go through the courts and that we’ll see sort of how that unfolds. But there’s no question in my mind that his actions clearly constituted an offense that is within the language of the 14th Amendment.”

The former Wyoming representative’s remarks, at a promotional event for her book at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, came moments before the Supreme Court agreed to consider Trump’s appeal of the Colorado top court’s decision to strike his name from the state’s primary ballot.

Cheney noted the congressional Jan. 6 select committee on which she served referred to the Justice Department evidence that Trump provided “aid and comfort” to the mob that stormed the Capitol three years ago. That is language in the section of the 14th Amendment that liberal advocacy groups and some voters are leaning on to challenge Trump’s eligibility for the GOP primary ballot in dozens of states.

Republicans, including Trump’s rivals for the GOP nomination, have widely criticized efforts to bar the former president from the ballot as undemocratic. Some have argued that it’s wrong to disqualify Trump without him being convicted of a crime.

But Cheney, one of the GOP’s most outspoken critics of Trump, said a conviction isn’t required under the Constitution.

“I certainly believe he should have been convicted by the Senate. But I don’t believe that that’s necessary,” Cheney said. “His actions do fit the plain meaning of