In the ideal timeline, some MAGA nuts would run third party for some close Senate races, as part of this new movement.
That 2024 Senate slate is awful.
Yeah. This.
I’m struggling to see a a valid reason why DOJ can’t bring an indictment—on the Mar-a-Lago documents case, at least—in the first quarter of 2023. What remains to be investigated?
Indictment by March 31 would predate any legitimate (to the extent a Donald maneuver could be legitimate) 3rd-party candidacy. If, say, the Libertarians say ‘sure, we’ll declare you our candidate’ months before they’ve ever declared a candidate before–and we are talking many years of Libertarian runs for the Presidency–that would smell to high heaven. I don’t see how Garland could think he’d get away with declaring a months-earlier-than-usual candidacy legit.
But time will tell.
…and what makes you think that would slow down anyone in the MAGAsphere? They don’t care a whit about appearances.
I wasn’t thinking about MAGA reactions at all.
I was thinking about the question of how DOJ could hope to sell the idea that ‘yeah, the Libertarians declared Trump their candidate 11 months before they’ve ever declared a candidate in any other election cycle IN OVER FIVE DECADES, but we’re going to choose to consider it totally legitimate.’
DOJ is, one hopes, at least slightly more interested in remaining tethered to facts than are the MAGA people. No one expects logic or adherence to reasonable standards and precedents from the MAGAs.
why would DOJ care about the date when Trump declares his candidacy?
What law has been broken?
This whole thing that when you are a known presidential candidate you somehow must be immunized from investigation or indictment or prosecution is exhasperating. There is a crime or there isn’t. And you can just imagine that if it weren’t a former Prez or a frontrunner from one of the Big Two parties but some contender for the nomination of the The Rent Is Too Damn High Party, prosecutors would have no problem carrying on, would they?
In 1920 Eugene Debs ran for president from prison and got nearly a million votes. Trump himself led chants for his opponent to be locked up. If there is a crime to be prosecuted, prosecute it. If the problem is that the prosecutors feel that with what they have they could not get a jury to convict, well then that sucks, but it happens.
I believe it’s immune from federal prosecution. Which is understandable but yes, it’s frustrating.
Not sure where to post this. But it is related to Donnie’s declining newsworthiness…
Try not to smile too hard.
Complete headline: Trump’s New Year’s Eve ‘media availability’ was a nothing-burger that no cable news stations carried
Donald Trump invited the media for a moment he called “media availability” at Mar-a-Lago ahead of the country club’s annual New Year’s Eve celebration. When the time came, however, Trump spoke for fewer than five minutes and not one of the cable news stations covered it, including allies like Newsmax and Fox.
It was reminiscent of Trump’s “big announcement” that ended up being a ploy for his own personal trading cards he was selling for $99.
The video appeared on the front page of the conservative hotspot Rumble. At first, even with the top audio levels, Trump could only narrowly be heard.
He began by wishing the media a “Happy New Year,” despite his hate for them. He then asked if there were any questions. He attacked inflation as “destroying our country,” and made an inaudible comment about Ukraine and Russia. Reporters asked questions like, “Would you support a national abortion ban,” which he refused to answer.
He rambled on about the “disgrace” of the Justice Department and the “weaponizing” of the FBI before he decided to wander into the event. When another asked how the 2024 campaign was going, he claimed it was, “very good,” despite not having any events or rallies of his own around the country after his announcement.
…
I declare the evening a resounding success!
I feel like I’m keeping this thread alive harder than disgraced, twice-impeached, ex-President Donald Trump is keeping his campaign alive, but we both shall prevail.
Just wanted to note for this thread’s record, as I mentioned in the Kevin McCarthy fiasco thread (whenever it’s called), that watching 20 GOP house members completely ignore Trump’s demands to vote for Kevin does as much as anything to highlight Donnie’s dramatic fall from grace among the actual power brokers.
I’m sure, however, that Donald has a plan to right this ship. In fact, appearing weak and stuck in Florida because he has no money is the plan!
As the incomparable Ann_Hedonia posted in that other thread:
He is messaging it as that it will only make HIS comeback look that much more great.
Of course, the only victory today was on the motion to adjourn…
I think it’s also illustrative that when the Chair announced that after the votes were tallied, Donald Trump got one vote out of 432, the laughter was louder than the applause.
A fall from grace, indeed. Maybe he should rethink his decision to announce his 2024 run.
No! Think of the thread!
As I predicted back in November:
I think, and based on the posters in this and related threads, that Trump really, Really doesn’t want to win (anymore than he really wanted to win in 2016), but CANNOT stand being ignored, or looked down on, or not being on the front page of Fox every single day. (The efforts to use his position to dodge legal boots being largely ineffective and the subject of other threads, so I’m disregarding for now)
So he’s running, but it’s just too much work. So when something happens, he inserts himself via Twuth or similar issues, and tries to seem relevant, but has largely squandered his potential political influence. This is NOT to say it’s all gone, or that there aren’t the born-again Trumpists out there that will still be his to grift or deny. But if Trump had ever cared (Ha!) about the Republican party, he could have done any number of things to improve their standings. But no, that would have been work, with little or no direct profit for him.
Now, he’s in the position where he can likely do no Good for the Republicans due to his toxic nature and reputation with anyone not already beholden, but he still has a huge potential as a spoiler - and given the razor thin margins in many areas, it has to be part of any political math to figure that if Trump speaks against you and tanks just a few thousand, to a few tens of thousands of votes, it could cost the Republicans a seat in any number of races.
So, yeah, I’m reluctantly endorsing him as a 2024 candidate, because I desperately want him to cost Republicans otherwise winnable seats out of envy, wrath, pride or sheer sloth. Thankfully, Trump is beset by all available sins, so…
Despite all logic, a surprising number of Republican voters still consider him an excellent candidate.
I disagree. Most of the die hard supporters don’t think him an excellent candidate in terms of running the country, rather, than want to BE him (vicariously).
Trump being the image of the rich man who gets everything he wants, and tells everyone else to fuck off and “NO” no matter what. They LOVE that, its what they want to be, but they don’t have the lawyers and money (theoretically anyway) to pull it off. Same sort of thing as to why they support MTG, Gaetz, and the rest. They want to be the person who acts like a 2 year old and sticks it to everyone who expects them to act like an adult.
Every day, they live more or less responsibly ( well, most, there’s the 1/6 and similar yahoos that try to live the dream/nightmare), but every night their news if full of their idols sticking it to the system. A win for them, in their twisted little minds.
Although support for Trump has “cratered” and some big funders and influential folks he threatened or insulted are withholding support this support is still at the 30-35% level. Under the circumstances, this is baffling even if some folks prefer his no-nonsense style of nonsense^.
^ Note: may contain nonsense.
Well, fundamentally, we are talking about the same thing. He’s popular with the folks who love him, and he’s popular despite or because of the traits that make him a horrible leader for the Republicans, much less the rest of the nation and the world.
And for that percentage that support him, it’s unlikely that any action he takes will change their minds.
I just hope that he ends up tanking the Republican efforts for another 2-3 elections. It’s going to be scary otherwise.
Yeah, I ran into some Hispanic man who overheard me dictating a Trump based text. He decided to approach me, opining that if Trump were on the ballot, he would vote for him again. I reminded him that the last time Trump was President, God himself punished America by smiting us with a plague… and being a good Catholic, who am I to ignore an obvious sign from God?
He decided to focus on ensuring the accuracy of his soda/ice mixture which, I admit, is tricky business.
Regardless, to the point: Other than Joe Biden, Donald Trump has the most solid national base of any rumored or actual Presidential candidate.
“Now who can argue with that?” - Olson Johnson