CNN’s Elie Honig Says Trump Has a ‘Valid Point’ After President Fumed at ‘Ridiculous’ Court Ruling
CNN’s Elie Honig Says Trump Has a ‘Valid Point’ After President Fumed at ‘Ridiculous’ Court Ruling
Kathryn WilkensFri, September 4, 2026 at 2:31 AM UTC
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CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig conceded on Thursday that President Donald Trump had a “valid point” after the president raged over a “ridiculous” Missouri Supreme Court ruling tossing the state’s new congressional map.
The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday to block a newly drawn congressional map aimed at giving Republicans a chance to pick up an additional House seat this fall, while allowing voters to decide the map’s future in November.
Trump took to Truth Social to rip the ruling, writing:
The Missouri Supreme Court just ridiculously ruled in favor of changing the maps back to what they were a long time ago. It’s called, Ancient History! The problem is, according to Legal Scholars, that not only was the ruling horrible, ridiculous, and unConstitutional, but there won’t be enough time to change the map back with the Election coming up in a very short period of time. The Election Process, as usual, is being disturbed in America! Missouri must be able to use the map that was in effect just a couple of months ago, in the Primary. This is a Dark Day for “Justice” in Missouri! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP
Honig, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, joined Thursday’s edition of CNN’s The Source, telling host Kaitlan Collins that while he “certainly” does “not adopt the rhetoric,” Trump “raises a valid point here.”
Honig continued:
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The outcome of this case leaves the voters of Missouri and the candidates in an essentially unprecedented and bizarre scenario. Now here’s why. Missouri, after the 2020 census, had eight congressional districts, which were broken down into six Republican-leaning districts, two Democratic-leaning districts.
During the mid-decade redistricting that happened, that was changed to a seven-to-one map. That new seven-to-one map was used last month during the state’s primary election, and now, today, the Missouri Supreme Court says, “Sorry, that had to go to the voters first for a referendum. So for the general election, coming up in November, you have to go back to the six-to-two map.”
How does that work? Where are voters going to vote? They’re gonna be voting in different districts for the primary and the general. How about the candidates? What happens to the candidates who won those primaries? The map’s not going to match up between the primary and the general, and the Missouri Supreme Court does not even begin to address what people are actually supposed to do on the ground. So it’s a practical mess in Missouri now.
Honig went on to predict that the Trump administration will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, though he questioned whether the justices would agree to hear the case.
While acknowledging that “it’s not really a federal issue,” Honig pointed to the Purcell principle, a legal doctrine discouraging courts from changing election rules too close to Election Day, as a reason the high court might want to take the case.
“Here we are, 60 days out, and suddenly Missouri has gone from a set procedure to chaos,” he concluded.
Watch above on CNN.
The post CNN’s Elie Honig Says Trump Has a ‘Valid Point’ After President Fumed at ‘Ridiculous’ Court Ruling first appeared on Mediaite.
Source: “AOL Breaking”
