WASHINGTON: Indian-American presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Wednesday opposed the Colorado Supreme Court decision to disqualify Donald Trump from the presidency next year in the state because of his role in the attack on the US Capitol in 2021.
The disqualification of the 77-year-old former president on Tuesday was based on the Constitution's 14th Amendment, which says officials who take an oath to support the US Constitution are banned from future office if they "engaged in insurrection."
Trump is currently the front-runner in the Republican Party's nomination process for the race for the White House in 2024.
Responding to Trump's disqualification, two-term former South Carolina Governor and a rival to Trump in the Republican primaries, Haley, said that "the last thing we want" is judges deciding who can and cannot be on the presidential ballot.
"I will tell you that I don't think Donald Trump needs to be president. I think I need to be president. I think that's good for the country," 51-year-old Haley was quoted as saying by The Des Moines Register newspaper.
"But I will beat him fair and square. We don't need to have judges making these decisions; we need voters to make these decisions," said the former US Ambassador to the UN.
"I want to see this in the hands of the voters," Haley said, adding, "We're going to win this the right way; we're going to do what we need to do, but the last thing we want is judges telling us who can and can't be on the ballot."
The landmark decision from the divided Colorado Supreme Court marks the first time a court has found Trump ineligible to return to the White House due to his conduct surrounding the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by his supporters, CBS News reported.
The ruling follows a months-long challenge in the state to the former president's ballot eligibility under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which deems former office-holders ineligible from running again if they took an oath to support the Constitution and then engaged in "insurrection or rebellion" against the US.
Trump has denied wrongdoing regarding the January 6 insurrection and has decried the 14th Amendment lawsuits as an abuse of the legal process.
He is under federal and state indictment linked with his attempts to overturn the 2020 election won by Joe Biden, a Democrat, and he has pleaded not guilty.