Vivek Ramaswamy pledges to withdraw from Colorado primary if Trump isn't put back on ballot - Re-post

Via the Washington Examiner.  

"This is what an *actual* attack on democracy looks like: in an un-American, unconstitutional, and *unprecedented* decision, a cabal of Democrat judges are barring Trump from the ballot in Colorado," he wrote.

Vivek Ramaswamy pledges to withdraw from Colorado primary if Trump isn't put back on ballot

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy pledged to take his name off the Colorado primary ballot if former President Donald Trump's name isn't on it.

In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Ramaswamy decried the move as an attack on democracy and demanded that his fellow primary contenders, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, do the same.

"This is what an *actual* attack on democracy looks like: in an un-American, unconstitutional, and *unprecedented* decision, a cabal of Democrat judges are barring Trump from the ballot in Colorado," he wrote.

"Having tried every trick in the book to eliminate President Trump from running in this election, the bipartisan Establishment is now deploying a new tactic to bar him from ever holding office again: the 14th Amendment," he said.

"I pledge to *withdraw* from the Colorado GOP primary unless Trump is also allowed to be on the state’s ballot, and I demand that Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, and Nikki Haley to do the same immediately - or else they are tacitly endorsing this illegal maneuver which will have disastrous consequences for our country," he continued.

Ramaswamy also laid out a constitutional argument on how the ruling was wrong, saying the amendment in question was only intended to relate to former Confederates and that "officer" doesn't include the position of president.

"The Framers of the 14th Amendment would be appalled to see this narrow provision—intended to bar former U.S. officials who switched to the Confederacy from seeking public office—being weaponized by a sitting President and his political allies to prevent a former President from seeking reelection," he said. "Our country is becoming unrecognizable to our Founding Fathers."

In a video statement posted shortly after, he doubled down on his condemnation, pledge, and demand that his fellow primary candidates follow his lead in withdrawing, warning that if they didn't, "they're complicit in what the security state is trying to do to shut down Trump and I stand by that and expect them to do the right thing."

While not following Ramaswamy's pledge, Christie condemned the opinion at a campaign stop, saying, "Donald Trump should not be prevented from being president by any court. He should be prevented from being president of the United States by the voters of this country."