MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” hosts lobbed a series of softball questions to Democratic Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows on Wednesday just days after Bellows kicked former President Donald Trump off the ballot.
Trump’s team appealed Colorado Supreme Court Tuesday to a Maine court the ruling by Bellows. A group of Republicans in Colorado appealed a similar ruling made by the Colorado Supreme Court to the Supreme Court.
Both rulings argue Trump cannot appear on the ballot because he violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
But none of the hosts seemed particularly inclined to get any real answers from Bellows on her decision that’s been widely criticized and questioned.
Host Mika Brzezinski threw the first softball, asking, “Has your life changed at all since you made this decision? Are you getting any reaction, like personally, from either side in this fight?”
“So, I’m heartened by the amazing positive reaction that I have received from people including people who disagree with my decision. A former Republican legislator, who told me candidly he disagrees with me, he supports Trump, but he came by yesterday with some relish and some jam to give me a hug. So that type of support, that respectful civility … has been really encouraging. But I also have been deeply concerned at the aggressive, abusive and threatening communications targeting my staff, my family, and indeed on Friday night, my home was swatted. My husband and I were away for the holiday weekend. Law enforcement has been perfect. They acted completely appropriately. And were in great communication with me.”
“Swatting is a fake call, doesn’t make it any less dangerous and these types of attacks need to stop, the proper process is to follow the rule of law and that is what I have done. I have done my duty under the Constitution and it is now in the hands of the courts and then I will implement whatever the courts direct me to do. That’s what we do in a democratic republic, that’s what makes our country, our nation, so great, so powerful, we are a rule of law … these political attacks are really unacceptable.” (RELATED: Adam Kinzinger Says Maine Official’s Move To Boot Trump ‘Opens A Real Pandora’s Box’)
Brzezinski’s line of questioning had a snowball effect on the other hosts, who went on to ask the following questions:
- “Let me ask you about what you saw in terms of the evidence in that hearing that led you to conclude that the former president had engaged in an insurrection. Because there’s been all this debate over the use of that word, was it really an insurrection on Jan. 6, the attack on the Capitol, was it really an insurrection the attempt to overturn the 2020 election… So what did you hear that triggered you to think, ‘Yes, the former president did engage in an insurrection?'”— co-host Willie Geist asked.
- “You can read more of that in the 34-page decision, the case that this was, in fact, insurrection … You obviously are following the law here, as you just laid out for us … But you’re also a human being, an American who lives in this country and you know what the potential implications of your decision can be to keep Donald Trump off the ballot there, the reaction from many of his supporters and what we’ve heard from him, which is that you’re sort of intervening, an election interference in some way. Did that weigh on you, that part of it? I know that you’re taking the legal view, as you should, but did the human element of this and the societal and political element, did that weigh on your decision?” — Geist asked.
- “Can you explain to our viewers what swatting is?” — Brzezinski asked.
- “Al Gore, John Kerry, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton all lost presidential elections. None of them were involved in anything called swatting calls as a result of their loss. You’re a public official, you were just swatted, what does that tell you about the state of democracy now and do you have any fear of what is happening to democracy going forward?” — MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle asked.
During a recent CNN interview with Erica Hill, Bellows was also asked rather easy questions. Hill asked Bellows how she was responding to the criticism about her decision and whether she was concerned the state legislature would take action to prevent something similar from happening again.
Meanwhile, CNN’s senior legal analyst Elie Honig ripped Bellows’ decision for being based on “YouTube clips,” “news reports” and “things that would never pass the bar in normal court.”