Top Republicans who once decried Trump join his insurrection ballot ban challenge

Top Republicans who once decried Trump and the U.S. Capitol attacks joined Thursday nearly 200 party members to throw support behind the former president's fight against an insurrectionist ballot ban, court records show.

Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — all of whom criticized Trump's actions on Jan. 6 2021 — are among 180 Republican lawmakers named in an amicus brief sent to the Supreme Court as it considers Colorado’s decision to bump the candidate for the party's presidential nomination from the state's 2024 presidential ballot.

The Republicans argue Trump cannot have been an insurrectionist because he told his followers to protest peacefully, and after they failed to do so, told them to go home.

“It is hard to imagine an actual insurrectionist quickly asking for peace and encouraging disbandment,” the brief states.

Reports from the historic day show Trump also told followers to “fight like hell” or risk losing their country and that he ignored pleas from his children and advisors to call for peace as he watched the attack on television.

In the days following the attack, McConnell issued a damning speech to the Senate, calling Trump "morally responsible" for the attack.

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Arguments levied by the 42 senators and 138 House representatives also include those already raised by Trump supporters, that a U.S. President isn’t an officer, that only Congress can rule on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, and that the Colorado Supreme Court too broadly interpreted the words “engaged in.”

The Republicans compare the Colorado Supreme Court — which ruled late last year Trump had violated the 14th Amendment’s ban on insurrectionists — to the authoritarian regime depicted in George Orwell’s “1984.”

“Enterprising state officials, in other words, may conclude that ‘Peace means War,’” the Republicans wrote.

The Supreme Court announced earlier this year it will hear arguments on the case on Feb. 8.

Their ruling will determine whether Trump’s name can appear on the presidential ballot in Colorado and Maine, another state that ruled the Republican frontrunner was ineligible to run.