Don’t forget the biggest bootlicker of them all. Lindsey Graham. Trump had a talk with him, and he switched as quickly as as a lightbulb goes off.
We don’t know for a fact that Mr. Smith is going to indict Trump. Maybe he’s a forgiving kinda guy. It’s at least theoretically possible he could decline to indict.
Should the GOP send thought and prayers that Trump is convicted and imprisoned?
Of course! It’s gets Trump out of the way and gives them their ultimate ‘Blutfahne’ to wave. That would be a ‘win-win’ for them.
‘Vote for us and we will return The King in the Lonely Tower to his rightful throne.’
If Trump wins the primary? Because that election would be a rerun, and Trump has only decreased in popularity since then. There’s a reason why so many more Republican politicians are willing to come out against him. He’s much weaker.
And because there is no reason to believe Biden voters will stay home if Trump is on the ticket. A large portion of Biden’s votes were from people against Trump. Someone else might not get as many hate voters.
I mean, Trump is so weak that he clearly read a speech prepared for him by the Republican party that tries to reign him in. It was so boring that Fox News interrupted their live coverage.
And then there’s the fact that Trump’s supported candidates underperformed heavily in this year’s election. In red states, they won by less than predicted. And, in purple states, not a single one won.
If Trump loses? Because Trump’s base is still very devoted to Trump, and Trump is very petty. Trump brought out a lot of unlikely voters. And Trump has no problem attacking everyone he thinks slighted him.
He doesn’t need to run third party (and I suspect likely wouldn’t since he can’t win). He just needs to not push his base to follow the nominee. He just needs to push his “they cheated” narrative.
Can I say for sure the Republicans lose the presidency in 2024? Of course not. But this is why the general wisdom is against them.
I disagree. If Trump goes to prison between now and 2024, DeSantis (or whoever the Republican nominee is) will be forced to take a public stand on whether Trump will stay in prison. The MAGA crowd will demand a public pledge that there will be a full presidential pardon on the first day of the new president’s inauguration (even if Trump is imprisoned on state charges). If the Republican nominee doesn’t make that public promise, he loses ten million MAGA votes. And if he does make that promise, he loses ten million “not another four years of this” votes. Either way, Biden gets re-elected.
The GOP doesn’t want Trump to go to prison. They want him to have a funeral. As long as Trump’s alive, he’s an anchor pulling down the Republican party.
Quoted for truth.
Yes I have thought that the simplest and perhaps the best thing for the good of our nation would be the natural death of Trump, saving us from the expense and tribulation of trying to provide justice over him and just get on with important things. But many of the praying type draw the line of praying for someone’s death.
Forced by whom? There’s nothing to prevent the Republican nominee from taking the stage at the convention and promising Trump a full pardon, and then going to a debate and promising to uphold Trump’s sentence. It remains to be seen if anyone other than Trump, himself, can pull off such bald-faced lies, but the precedent has been set. There’s nothing forcing a politician to take just one stand on an issue, anymore. If enough people want to believe a lie, they will.
What the GOP should do is send their votes, money, and other support that Trump is convicted and imprisoned. As to their thoughts and prayers, whatever they want to do with them would be fine. Maybe send those toward winning elections, yes, that’d be fine.
What they will do, I can’t speculate usefully.
If enough people wanted to believe a lie, they would have re-elected Donald Trump in 2020 and this thread wouldn’t exist. The fact that Joe Biden is President proves that public opinion still matters in American politics.
Sure, DeSantis could try to equivocate. But the MAGAs are going to be saying “If you don’t publicly pledge to pardon our beloved leader - or if you try to back down after making that pledge - we will turn on you in a heartbeat.” Meanwhile millions of other voters will be saying, “We are tired of this Trump bullshit. If you say you’re going to pardon Trump, we’ll turn against you just like we turned against Ford after he pardoned Nixon.” It’s a lose/lose for DeSantis. And the Democrats will be free to push the issue hard because they don’t have a dog in the fight. They don’t have to worry about the MAGA vote so they can say "Donald Trump was given a fair trial and was found guilty in a court of law. We believe in the American justice system. Do you disagree, Governor DeSantis?"
Perhaps he fears the phrase “Hang Ron DeSantis!”
I would hope that Jan 6th made more voters anti-trump then turned them around to Trump supporters. Though I guess that’s still to be proven, I’m sure there are some, and hope there are not many, who thought that was the right thing to do and respected Trump for that.
Perhaps Trump should be convicted and sentenced under NY law for any one of his seemingly endless crimes and thus be shielded against presidential pardons. However isn’t accepting a pardon an admission of guilt in the eyes of the court and would set Trump up for a plethora of civil law suits that the pardon by default would make him liable for?
I think it hurt Trump even among his extremist supporters. Some of them must be telling themselves that the reason their attempted coup failed was because Trump held back. People like Hitler, Lenin, and Mao were out there on the front line with the fighters. Trump made his speech and then went back to his office to wait and see if the fighters he sent forth were going to win. And then after the riot was contained and people started getting arrested, Trump didn’t hand out any pardons. He left his followers out in the cold to face the consequences.
Hmm, Trump made it a point that the SS wouldn’t allow him to go with them, this may ave been the reason, to show his willingness, even if it was just another lie, but Trumps supporters accept Trumps lies as truth.
He’s become a political albatross.
I thought Trump denied making a grab for the SS car’s steering wheel (with his tiny, doll-like hands)