but who is shanna bellows?s not a lawyer or a legal expert, but she is a lifelong democrat activist who was the executive director of the ecl you in maine. we figure that's where she learned everything she nose. she always wanted to be a big shot, democrat snapping selfies with biden and obama, big old brand. if you run for senate in 2014 against susan collins. she had the most famous person in maine, stephen king, cut ads for her. >> have you ever worked so hard or hope so strongly for a change in leadership? shanna bellows would be a breath of fresh air, she is focused on people from the states. she should make a change and shanna bellows is the change. >> pete: she is the hope and change of maine, but even stephen king and his half billion dollars couldn't get her elected. the voters rejected her, but she ended up in a much more influential position than any senator could hope for. if you years later, bellows was appointed, not elected, to be maine secretary of state. her first big move was to kick the leadi

joining us now is the person in middle of this all, the maine secretary of state shanna bellows. secretary, thank you so much for being with us. the 14th amendment section 3 says no person shall be a senator, representative in congress or elected president or vice president or hold any office if they have engaged in insurrection. in your mind, why does that mean donald trump cannot be on the maine primary ballot? >> the oath i swore uphold the constitution comes first and foremost. the analysis of the constitution and the facts laid before me at the hearing that i was obligated to hold under maine law brought me to this decision. >> you have decided that donald trump engaged in insurrection? >> the weight of the evidence brought forward under maine law in the section 336 challenge that was brought made it clear that mr. trump was aware of the tinder he laid in a multi-month efforts to challenge the legitimacy of the 2020 election. and then in an unprecedented and tragic series of events chose to light a match. >> and you make that decision, even though he has not been charged or

joining me now is main secretary of state, shanna bellow's. welcome to you, madam secretary. this is our second conversation, i had the opportunity to speak to you yesterday when i was sitting in the chair in -- . and yesterday when i asked about your safety amid backlash and targeting from donald trump and his supporters, you told me that this was about the rule of law, not your personal safety. but since we last spoke, your home was a target of a swathe in call, and that is according to maine state police. now they note after they received the call from an unknown male, saying he had broken into your home, thankfully no one was found inside that did not, there was no danger. but, are you now concerned about your safety, or the safety of your family or your staff? >> i am. and, i decided to speak out today, because threats of violence are unacceptable. swatting the home of an elected official, who is doing their job, is unacceptable. and what my staff, my team have experienced, what they experience all day yesterday, was a constant all onslaught of threatening communications

bellows took on political responsibility.tion, she motivated the decision by the fact that trump cannot hold an elected office, as he participated in an insurrection against legitimate authorities. we are talking about the events of january 6th. first year in the capitol, where trump supporters entered after the announcement of the results of the presidential election, but not a single authority has legally qualified those events as an insurrection, and there is not a single... court decision that would find trump guilty in the so-called case 6th january. there was not even a fabricated court case, i was not involved in this supreme court. this is the first time in us history, she said: guilty of insurrection, but trump was not found guilty by the court, but democrats want to create the appearance that he is a criminal through false accusations. as you remember, they charged trump with being... noisy with songs and dances to the drums, but quite peacefully, as participants report , the police, although on standby, practically

this is the secretary of state there, shanna bellows, she says she's weighed the evidence and decided trump did engage in insurrection against the united states. i am mindful, she says, that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on section three of the 14th amendment. i am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection. the state of colorado, meantime, barring trump through the courts. a lower court determined trump engaged in insurrection, but said that didn't disqualify him. the supreme court in the state disagreed and ruled trump had disqualified himself. both the state supreme court and the state republican party in colorado have asked a u.s. supreme court, the u.s. supreme court, to make a ruling on that. the most important question, who decides if a candidate has violated section three of the 14th? the writers not clear about that at all. a look at a map where this question whether trump qualifies for the ballot is under some sort of consideration in the courts. notice, we had not co

this is the secretary of state there, shanna bellows. she says she's weighed the evidence and decided trump did engage in insurrection against the united states. i am mindful, she said, that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on section three of the 14th amendment. i am also mindful, however, that a candidate has never before engaged in insurrection. the state of colorado, meantime, has barred trump through the courts. a lower court determined trump did engage in insurrection, but said it didn't disqualify him. the state supreme court disagreed, ruled he had disqualified himself. both the state supreme court and the state republican party in colorado have asked the u.s. supreme court to make a ruling. the most important question, who decides if a candidate has violated section three of the 14th amendment? the writers weren't clear about that at all. a look at a map where this question is in front of the courts, whether he qualifies for the ballot, note, we hadn't colored in maine becau

so i'll be speaking with secretary shanna bellows about this latest challenge to trump's eligibility

here it is in black and white from maine's democratic secretary of state, shanna bellows, who said that he was, quote, not qualified to hold the office of the president. this is a ruling from the state's top election official, not a court, i should note. she has already paused her decision for 20 days, in case there is an appeal, which the trump legal team says tonight that there will be in the coming d days. they had tried to get bellows removed actually from making this decision earlier this week, citing her social media post. but she says she didn't make this decision lightly. quote, i am mindful that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on section iii of the 14th amendment. i am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in an insurrection. moments ago, she explained her division here on cnn. >> the oath i swore, uphold the constitution, comes first and foremost. the weight of the evidence brought forward under maine law in the section 336 challenge that was brought made it clear that mr. trump was

the ranks of those who say their defending democracy a single main democrat, secretary of state sh shannalows has knod donald trump off the ballot, one person a lifelong liberal a joe biden supporter following the lead of colorado supreme court in invoking the 14th amendment in declaring the former president and eligible. that would take the decision out of the voters hands and is an absolute media bombshell. when we look at iowa it's worth noting that very conservative republicans have one the complicated caucuses in the past, mike huckabee in 2008, rick santorum, 2012, takers 2016 and gone on to lose, the media's intense focus on iowa always gives the winner a boost, we've never seen numbers like this with the fox business pull pain donald trump of 52%, ron desantis the 18%, nikki haley at 16% in iowa that's what we call a blowout, truck made a video urging iowa supporters to turn out with anonymous warning. >> do whatever it takes, we will win we will win big and that's what you have to do the other side does cheat. >> nikki haley who's embroiled in the country about the word slavery h

bellows, who was the maine secretary of state who you just heard from there, they wanted her to recuse herself, the trump team, because they were citing this social media post that she had. she told me that actually she believed they needed to make that before the hearing happened, according to maine law. this is what else she said about why she wouldn't have recused if they had made it in time. >> they actually did not ask me to recuse myself until after the hearing. maine law required me to issue a decision. and should they have made that in a timely way, i would not have recused myself because of my obligations but also because of my political affiliations and my personal views of january 6th have no bearing on this case. >> she had called january 6th an insurrection. she had said that trump should be impeached. shan, when they do appeal this to the superior court in maine, do they take this into consideration? >> they can take it into consideration. i'm not an expert on the maine administrative law or the maine l law. but generally, to me, recusal is a pretty weak form of rules. be

. >> that's shanna bellows two days before the january 6th insurrection, being sworn in as the firstsecretary of state in maine's history. and she's now the first such official in american history to disqualify a presidential candidate under the 14th amendment. back in february of 2021, after former president trump's second impeachment and the senate's acquittal vote that followed she wrote, the jan 6th -- free and fair election. today 57 senators, including king and collins found trump guilty. that's short of impeachment but nevertheless an indictment. the insurrectionists failed and democracy prevailed. just minutes later adding, not saying not disappointed. he should have been impeached. but history will not treat him or those who voted against impeachment kindly. trump's legal team cited those social media posts to argue that secretary bellows should recuse herself from the ballot decision. she refused. a longtime democrat, bellows hails from hancock, maine, and says she started from humble beginnings. >> i grew up without electricity or running water until i was in the fifth gra

most recently in maine, secretary of state shanna bellows, as amended by her state laws, heard objectionsnald trump's candidacy for registered voters, then heard counter arguments representatives for donald trump before ultimately deciding that he was disqualified under section three. colorado, republican and unaffiliated voters sued democratic secretary of state, janet griswold, in her official capacity, arguing that donald trump should not appear on the ballot. secretary griswold agreed. but the question went all the way to the colorado supreme court. which also decided that trump was ineligible to run in their state. now, both of these rulings have been suspended to allow for appeals. but here is what both secretary of state have said about their processes. >> i made a decision because i was obligated to buy the law. and the oath that i talked to the constitution. >> i do believe the colorado supreme court got it right. that trump should be disqualified from the ballot, because of his role in the insurrection. but ultimately, i will follow whatever decision that's in place. >> not ever

and that is where we start with the aforementioned main secretary of state, shanna bellows. madam secretary, i want to thank you so much for being here. i actually want to start by asking about something that i just mentioned in our set up. are you and your team receiving any threats? just not in the wake of the ruling, but specifically in the wake of the ex president posting a link to the official website with their contact information? >> first, thank you for having me. i deeply appreciate it. i just want to share that my decision is by the blue rule of law and constitution. that is my only consideration. this is part of the process here in the state of maine. and i hope everyone will be civil, will be respectful and will follow the process and law. >> madam secretary -- >> the events on january six -- yeah, go ahead. i'm sorry, go ahead. >> i just wanted to know, i watched you on our network and others last night in the aftermath of your ruling, and you very much so, as you laid out in your decision, you went through great lengths to explain your process. you used somber

by deciding to exclude trump from the primaries, bellows became the first official representative of election commission to unilaterally make a decision that would potentially have consequences for the electoral college. i will also remind you that a similar decision against trump was previously made by a court in the state of colorado. let's add yuri rashkin to the conversation, he is a representative of rock county, wisconsin, the host of the youtube channel rashkin repot. we welcome you. concerning the state of colorado and the state of maine, well, this is a certain icebucket of a new format in relation to trump, but in colorado the republicans have already filed an appeal, as i understand it, in my opinion the appeal will be the same, the chances are that they promise, so the chances are that, that both there and there satisfy her, how would you rate it? chances are possible, no matter what, we cannot predict what will happen, because we have never had such a situation, and even when trump is given the right to return and be on the ballot, it is still disputed, no matter how und