removal from the republican primary ballot in maine. the secretary of state who made the decision to ban trump joins us with her reaction this hour. also breaking, another federal indictment of senator bob menendez, accusing the democrat of accepting bribes from a second foreign country. stand by for details on the new charges tied to an alleged corruption scheme that prosecutors say lasted for years. plus there s new audio of air traffic controllers giving instructions shortly before the fiery crash at a tokyo airport. what the recording reveals as the investigation gets under way. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. this is cnn breaking news. let s get right to the breaking news. donald trump formally challenging the to remove him from the primary pal lot in maine based on the 14th amendment s insurrectionist ban. we ll speak live with maine s secretary of state, shen that bellows,
court reviewing the matter. and i will uphold whatever the court instructs me to do, because the constitution and the rule of law are what matter. do you think the u.s. supreme court, madam secretary, needs to take this question up in order to clear up any ambiguity? we would very much welcome guidance from the u.s. supreme court. chris christie, as you know, he s a fierce trump critic, warns this move risks turning trump into a martyr. how do you respond to that? and do you have any concern taking trump off the ballot risks tearing the country apart? my duty under maine election law and the constitution and the oath i swore to the constitution is to look exclusively at the hearing and the evidence before me and make a decision based on the law. neither political considerations nor personal considerations for my safety could enter into that decision. i had a duty and obligation to follow the constitution, as do all of us who serve in
constitution and the rule of law. those were my sole considerations in this hearing and in my decision. and it s really important to recognize that this is a process in maine. i qualified trump for the ballots based on his signatures, then five registered maine voters, including two former republican state senators, brought a challenge. i was required by law to hold a hearing within five days then issue a decision within a week. now it s part of the process. the courts will take it from here. that being said, i voluntarily suspended the effect of my decision pending appeal. this is how the rule of law should work. i also want to get your reaction to another key part of trump s legal appeal, and i m quoting once again from this 11-page document that has been released. as evidence of president trump s conduct, the secretary relied entirely on president trump s public speeches. these speeches did not incite
this accountability would not have happened were it not for that congressional hearing. reporter: stefanic underscoring that her investigation will continue. giving lawyerly, equivocal answers i think this is the bigger issue. reporter: gay s tenure as president was the shortest in harvard s nearly 400-year history. she was also the school s first black president and only the second woman at the helm. in her resignation note, she wrote that it has been frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus. dr. gay will remain a member of harvard s faculty. the school says that it will start a search for a new president in due course. some conservatives on capitol hill say they will now train their ire on m.i.t. s president, also at that hearing, as well as other leaders of other universities that they consider
adding, we do so with sorrow. conservative media had been unearthing multiple examples of plagiarism in behave gay s past works, including an entire paragraph lifted almost verbatim in her 1997 ph.d. dissertation without citation. after she along with the presidents of u-penn and m.i.t. gave an answer that was widely considered too legal in a december 5th congressional hearing about anti-semitism on campus. so the answer is yes, that calling for the genocide of jews violates harvard code of conduct, correct. again, it depends on the context. reporter: fallout from the hearing also resulted in the resignation of u-penn s president, liz mcgill. house republican caucus leader elise stefanik wasting no time responding to today s events. as a harvard graduate myself, we have seen a failure of leadership from claudine gay, a failure of moral leadership.