our top stories this hour the ballot ballots destined for the u.s. supreme court. colorado republicans appeal a ruling that would have kept donald trump out of that state s primary cost. so what happens next. plus, new scrutiny for nikki haley, after a voter confronts her with this question what was the cause of the united states civil war? well, don t come with an easy question or anything. so her full response and the damage control she s trying to do today. and the sight of a quadruple murder. today there s a lot of debate about tearing down the house where four college students were brutally killed. we begin the hour with former president donald trump and the efforts to boot him over the ballot over the constitution s so-called insurrection clause. in colorado, the state democratic republican parties is asking the supreme court to consider the issue. maine s secretary of state is due to decide whether trump can be on their state s ballot. the former pres
decision did not come down to a panel of state justices. instead just secretary of state shenna bellows upheld two of the three challenges brought by maine voters. one of whom i ll speak to in just a moment. what bellows says her reasoning was based on and what it all means for donald trump heading into super tuesday. we re also watching colorado where time is ticking on the decision to remove trump from the ballot there that the former president has yet to file his appeal with the supreme court. still voters are urging justices to speed up their review of an appeal from colorado s republican party. how and when they could act. plus which other states could throw a wrench into trump s 2024 calendar. we ve got a whole lot to cover. let s dive in. joining me msnbc news justice reporter ryan riley. bring us up to speed on what happened in maine and how donald trump is now reacting. yes. as you expect the trump campaign plans to file an appeal quickly and get this through the
battles for former president donald trump. there were two big developments last night. maine decided donald trump is constitutionally ineligible to appear on the ballot. the secretary of state citing the 14th amendment which bans from office those who engage in insurrection. on the west coast, the california secretary of state deciding to keep trump on the ballot. all this putting even more pressure on the supreme court to weigh in. we want to bring in vaughn hillyard and former rnc executive committee member jennifer horn. vaughn, start us off with maine. reporter: in the state of maine the decision of the secretary of state last night was much awaited. she had heard challenges in her role as secretary of state. this is where you get into the differences in what state law allows or puts the onus on a secretary of state to ultimately agent on. that s where the role of the maine secretary of state says it is her responsibility to determine whether a candidate is qualified to
a very good day to all of you. i m alex witt. our top stories this hour, israel says the war on hamas could last for many months as it carries out new deadly strikes in gaza, including on refugee camps. that s despite growing pressure from the biden administration to change course. michigan s supreme court rejects an attempt to remove donald trump from the 2024 primary ballot. the opposite of a ruling by colorado s supreme court. we will dig into what that means for the former president s campaign. top u.s. officials led by secretary of state blinken set to arrive in mexico to try to tackle the record number of migrants crossing into the u.s. 8,000 moving right now toward the southern border. new storm warnings on the east coast threaten holiday travel plans. a blizzard pounds colorado as more than 6,000 flights are delayed nationwide. we begin this hour with israel and the u.s. at odds over the war in gaza. a top advisor was at the white house to talk about what come
plus, israel is barring refugee camps as part of new efforts to find hostages. the head of the idf insists the war will go on for months but some critics think that will not be enough time to wipe out hamas. and jack smith calling on the d.c. court to do something that sounds almost unthinkable. stop donald trump from injecting politics into his election interference trial. we re going to start with secretary of state blinken. all right. we re going to start with blinken and dhs secretary set to meet with mexico s president as we speak. the two countries grappling with what the u.s. is calling quote unprecedented levels of migration as well as security challenges on both sides of the southern border. now, these discussions taking on even more urgency as a massive new caravan of roughly 8,000 mie migrants or more are making their way to the united states. the u.s. is already struggling to deal with a record number of migrants. nearly 50,000 arriving last week alone, overwhel