Dems: Franken disrespected a woman he’s out.
GOP: Trump is a rapist, a traitor and a criminal, Four More Years!
For what it’s worth, a group called Democracy Defenders Fund, founded by Obama’s ethics czar Norm Eisen, has filed a FOIA request for the Epstein files.
Actually 7? 8?
Butt-patting, kissing.
Not cool.
But still par for the course for the GOP, it seems.
A pardon for Maxwell be for the midterms would be devastating for the Republicans!
Why? Seriously asking.
Not to speak for JoePockets, but I agree, and I said why upthread but was pooh-poohed. To expand on what I said earlier: A lot of people– QAnons, MAGAts, MAGA influencers/trolls, suburban moms and dads, low-info voters, the easily-influenced/less-likely to vote– think child sex trafficking is at a crisis level in our country, and that there’s this underground network of scumbags actively snatching thousands of children every year and turning them into sex slaves. Now, a lot of those people have been led to believe the Democrats are neck-deep in this network (probably by right-wingers themselves who are neck deep). But I think all of those people see Ghislaine Maxwell as guilty as fuck, regardless of where she lands on politics, and that she got what she deserved. They probably even think she got off easy
So if Trump sets her free, for any reason whatsoever? Holy shit, that’s not going to be a good look for Team Trump. Oh, sure, the hardcore MAGAts will contort themselves into knots to justify Dear Leader’s actions. But he’s also going to lose a shit-ton of support from people who don’t support freeing sex traffickers from prison. Especially if it looks like he did it to protect his own pervy pedo ass.
Really? Because I think the normal media will cover it for a day or two until Trump doesn’t something else outrageous, right-wing media won’t cover it at all, MAGA folks will think she was put in jail by the deep state, and the cognitively normal will forget about it within a week or so.
Here’s what I think is going to happen: right wing media will start pushing the narrative that Maxwell is a victim of Epstein and the evil Democrats and she is going to help us get to the bottom of this nefarious plot. Whatever she did when she was brainwashed by Epstein and the Clintons should be forgiven for her great courage in naming names.
I don’t think it will be before the midterms, but that’s what’s going to happen. The Trumpists here will repeat the above lie and there will be no consequences for Trump or the GOP.
ETA: wouldn’t surprise me if it did happen before mid-terms, but probably not.
That’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off.
It always has for him in the past. Americans are morons.
Normally, I’d think that pardoning a child sex trafficker would be a bad look for a politician, but:
So I don’t trust my instincts on this.
madmonk28 has this correct IMHO. The MAGAts will be told the pardon was to get her to give up the names of all the evil liberals/Democrats.
I see no way the rightwing conspiracy kooks have ever thought DJT or any GOP folks were involved in Epstein’s crimes. That goes double for Bannon and Rogan. This is why the GOP base has been worked up about the “files” not being released.
The MAGAs wonder why their hero would protect the Clintons, etc.
If they were smart, they wouldn’t be MAGA.
That’s what Trump hoped would happen this time, he even did and said crazy things as a distraction, but it didn’t work. This Epstein issue has legs for some reason. You can’t really predict what’s going to stick and what gets forgotten.
It doesn’t matter if the MAGAs look at Trump with disgust if it isn’t enough to get them to think that Trump is actually worse than the Democrats. A vote while holding your nose is just as valid as a vote while holding a rose.
Disgust makes it more likely some will refrain from voting for Trump (and maybe altogether). That’s still better than voting for Trump.
Until we can get past the “Trump bad-Democrats worse” barrier I am afraid that that is just wishful thinking.
Maybe, maybe not. But the story is still doing damage to Trump’s ratings, and that’s something. If we can’t hit Trump on the things that are actually damaging his ratings, then what else would we hit him on?
Do decreases in Trump’s poll numbers correspond to increases in Democratic polls numbers?
We’ll see. His poll numbers were down when he lost in 2020. And when he lost in the midterms in '18.
But what is your point? Democrats should give up? Not attack Trump?