Top Senate GOP leaders silent on decision to boot Trump from Colorado ballot

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2-ranking member of the Senate GOP leadership, are staying quiet on the state Supreme Court ruling barring former President Trump from the Colorado ballot.  

McConnell and Thune have held back from endorsing Trump, despite his commanding lead in the polls, and at various points have suggested that his lack of appeal to suburban swing voters and college-educated women would be a problem in a general election.  

Some Republican senators think their party would be better off if Trump were not the GOP nominee in 2024, though polls show he is cruising easily to a third nomination for president.  

So while a group of GOP lawmakers is rallying to Trump’s defense and demanding the U.S. Supreme Court immediately overturn the decision in Colorado, McConnell, Thune and other Trump skeptics in the Senate GOP conference are sitting this one out.  

At the very least, they’re not eager to put more political pressure on the Supreme Court, which is now facing at least two major Trump-related rulings and will likely become a central player in the 2024 election.