the country, including a former president, was the subject of a hearing today in a federal courthouse in washington, d.c. attorneys for donald trump and federal prosecutors argued over trump s claim that the federal election case against him should be dismissed because everything he did in the postelection period was in his official capacity as president. the three-judge panel that is hearing the case appeared spectacle of that claim. the ex-president and jack smith were in the courtroom today. trump has been claiming that president joe biden has been forcing him to appear in court, which is not true, he did have no obligation to appear at today s hearing. trump s attorney argued that allowing the prosecution of donald trump would, quote, open a pandora s box, but the judge has pushed back on that and many of the arguments he was making. trump s lawyer also argued that the president could only be prosecuted if he was impeached and convicted by the senate first, no matter what
it s becoming a common theme in the republican party, they demand that president biden be subject to the same treatment for nothing. we saw it with the house gop impeachment inquiry into president biden, which even matt gaetz called a failure theater where house republicans basically admitted the effort was purely political tit for tat after donald trump was impeached for soliciting foreign interference in an election and then for attempt to go overthrow the government. now, in response to trump being removed from the blot in two states over his role in the january 6th insuecon, missouri secretary of state, this man, jay ashkroft, is, you guessed it, threatening to remove biden from the ballot if the supreme court doesn t intervene to keep trump from being removed. nbc news asked ashkroft how he would justify removing b from the ballot. his response, quote, let an invasion, meaning biden, letn
invasion unstopped into our country from the border. visident kamala harris supported people that were rebelling against the u.s. rnnt during the riots in 2020, end quote, referring to racial justice protests in the wake of george floyd s murder. the translation is pretty simple. you did it to our guy, now we ll do it to yours. joining us now is the democratic senator, chris coons of delaware. senator, i m sorry to debase you with such a dumb question as to put this to you. what do you do about this? this is dumb. donald trump did actually things which it s difficult to hold him to account. it s not entirely sure he ll be held to account. ashkroft knows better. this is not a guy who s new to the political system. that s right. attorney general of missouri had no credible basis for his threat to try and throw president biden off the ballot in missouri in exchange for him having been
provisionally thrown off the ballot in the state of maine, in the state of colorado. that action by the states of colorado and maine and the consideration of that in other states is working its way through our judicial system. there s no basis for removing president biden from a statewide primary ballot or general election ballot. he didn t participate in any of the events around the insurrection of january 6th. the things that you just recited that attorney general ashkroft raised have no foundation in law and no relation to the elements of the 14th amendment concerns that the colorado supreme court weighed. so i don t think there is any credible basis for him to move forward with this action. the problem is, once you start saying it enough, people listen. i want to, you know, talk to about let me show you what donald trump has said about this. says we can t have every four years there s a cycle of political recrimination where