Palm Beach: As a furious band of his supporters broke down walls, smashed windows, used flags to beat up police US Capitol To reverse a free and fair election, Donald trumpThe boycott from the Republican Party seemed almost certain, his name tarnished beyond repair.
Some of his close associates, including Fox News Hosts like Laura Ingraham warned that day that Trump was “destroying” her legacy. “All I can say is count me. Enough,” said his friend and confidante Sen. Lindsey Graham. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader who worked closely with Trump to dramatically change the judiciary, later He called him “morally responsible” for the attack.
But a year later, Trump is hardly the leader in exile. Instead, he is the undisputed leader of the Republican Party and a leading contender for the 2024 presidential nomination.
Trump is positioning himself as a potent force in primary campaigns that will determine who gets the party’s support when it takes control of Congress, the governor’s offices and state election positions.
At least for now, Trump has little to stop as he makes the GOP’s unshakable loyalty to his vision a litmus test for success in the primary race, leaving little incentive for ambitious Republicans to surpass him.
“Come on, I’m very disappointed,” said former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, a longtime Republican who now serves on the advisory committee of the Renew America Movement, a group that seeks to move the party away from Trump’s control. is trying.
“His ego was never letting him accept defeat and go quietly into the night,” she said. “But I wonder how respectable Republicans are among elected officials”.
Instead of expressing any opposition to the events of January 6, Trump has often appeared upbeat and has been lying about his 2020 election losses. He repeatedly – and falsely – says that the “real” rebellion was on November 3, the date of the 2020 election when Democrat Joe Biden won a 306-232 Electoral College victory and a 7 million popular vote margin.
Federal and state election officials and Trump’s own attorney general have said there is no credible evidence that the election was tainted. The former president’s allegations of fraud were also dismissed by courts, including a Trump-appointed judge.
Fearless, Trump is preparing for another race for the White House in 2024, and polls show that, at this point, he will easily walk away with the GOP nomination.
For Trump, the extraordinary result is the product of sheer willpower and a misinformation campaign that began long before the election, when he insisted he could lose if the election was “rigged” and failed to accept defeat. will not commit.
His refusal to accept reality flourished with the approval of most Republican leaders, who, for fear of dissolving a party, ignored the seriousness of the rebellion, whose base is firmly aligned with Trump’s and what happened on Jan. His attempts to downplay her seriousness. 6.
According to a poll released this week by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs, five people died during or immediately after the riots, while less than half of Republicans remembered the attack as violent or extremely violent. Huh. Nearly 3 in 10 Republicans said the attack was not violent.
The situation has stunned and depressed critics in both political parties, who were convinced that the rebellion would force Republicans to abandon the Trump era once and for all.
He became the first president in American history to be impeached twice. The second impeachment focused on his role in stirring up the rebellion, but Trump was acquitted in a Senate trial, a clear sign that he will face some consequences for his actions.
“It was hoped when we were in the safe room that we would go back and the Republicans would see how crazy this was, how fragile our democracy was, what President Trump had done, and they would abandon it and we would all come together,” Rep. he said. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., describing the events of that day. Instead, she said, “there were people defending the rebels and defending Trump and continuing with the challenge and the big lie.”
Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a Republican who, along with Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, has emerged as one of the few anti-GOP Trump critics in Congress, predicted that Trump’s grip on the party would “gone away” by the summer. . But Kinzinger, who recently announced his decision not to run for re-election, blamed House Republican leader and Trump ally Kevin McCarthy for proving him wrong.
Kinzinger, referring to the trip to Florida as a party in late January 2020, said, “The only thing I underestimated would be the impact one person would have on him, and that’s Kevin McCarthy and his Mar-a-A-K. Lago’s Journey.” On the verge of chaos. With their eyes set to retake the House in 2022, Trump and McCarthy agreed to work together and released a photo of them smiling side by side.
“Kevin McCarthy is legitimately the only reason Donald Trump is still a force in the party,” Kizinger said. “That whole-hearted hug, I saw first of all in the members, terrified them to not only take on Trump, but in some cases even embrace him wholeheartedly.”
McCarthy’s aides did not respond to a request for comment on Kizinger’s characterization.
Others, however, point to fractures that suggest Trump’s power is waning.
Banned from Twitter and denied his other social media megaphone, Trump no longer controls the news cycle like he did in office. He canceled a news conference scheduled for Thursday after pressure from some Republican allies who warned that such an event was not advised.
During last year’s most prominent elections, Republicans like Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin strategically kept Trump at arm’s length. Youngkin’s victory created a possible model for candidates running on a battlefield where suburban voters are a major bloc uncomfortable with the former president.
While Trump’s endorsement is coveted in many midterm primary races, it has also failed to clear the ground in some major races. Trump has similarly struggled to keep other Republicans from eyeing the 2024 presidential nomination. His former vice president, secretary of state and a handful of Senate aides have made frequent trips to early-voting states, prepared for potential campaigns and denied running against Trump.
“When someone walks out of the Oval Office, the most powerful office in the world, to sit by the swimming pool at Mar-a-Lago, his influence is diminished,” said John Bolton, a former Trump national security adviser. Bolton has funded extensive national and state-level polling on the topic last year, which found Trump’s influence and the power of his support to be significantly diminished since he left office.
“I really think the evidence is clear that people have worked with Trump,” Bolton said. “They still have support, but it’s declining. Honestly, it’s not falling as fast as I’d like to see and it’s not going below zero. But among real people, it’s declining.”
Trump is facing multiple investigations, including in New York, where prosecutors are investigating whether his real estate company misled banks and tax officials about the value of his assets in order to obtain favorable loan terms. Inflated or reduced them to reduce tax savings. New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office confirmed this week that it has submitted submissions to Trump and his two eldest children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., as part of an investigation into the family’s business practices. Both children have been major political surrogates for Trump.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, the January 6 committee continues to investigate the Trump White House’s involvement in the deadly rebellion.
Trump is still eyeing 2024, even as he looks to the 2020 election. After spending 2021 raising money and declaring support for candidates who parrot his election, Trump’s team is preparing to pivot to helping those candidates win with a stepped-up rally schedule and financial aid. including transfers in the accounts of the candidates. and targeted advertising.
According to aides, Trump sees the midterm as a cornerstone for his next campaign, and intends to use the cycle to position himself for his party’s nomination.
Meanwhile, voting rights advocates are increasingly concerned as states with Republican legislatures push forward legislation that would allow them to influence or eliminate votes in future elections. He fears what might happen if the Trump-backed candidate for secretary of state and attorney general who says the election was stolen finds himself in positions that could affect the outcome in 2024.
“It’s a concerted effort to undermine our public’s confidence in the electoral system, so in 2022 and 2024, if they don’t like the election – and it’s Republican – they can reverse it,” Whitman said. President of States United Action, a nonpartisan non-profit organization that aims to protect the integrity of future elections. “We are in a very delicate place.”
Some of his close associates, including Fox News Hosts like Laura Ingraham warned that day that Trump was “destroying” her legacy. “All I can say is count me. Enough,” said his friend and confidante Sen. Lindsey Graham. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader who worked closely with Trump to dramatically change the judiciary, later He called him “morally responsible” for the attack.
But a year later, Trump is hardly the leader in exile. Instead, he is the undisputed leader of the Republican Party and a leading contender for the 2024 presidential nomination.
Trump is positioning himself as a potent force in primary campaigns that will determine who gets the party’s support when it takes control of Congress, the governor’s offices and state election positions.
At least for now, Trump has little to stop as he makes the GOP’s unshakable loyalty to his vision a litmus test for success in the primary race, leaving little incentive for ambitious Republicans to surpass him.
“Come on, I’m very disappointed,” said former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, a longtime Republican who now serves on the advisory committee of the Renew America Movement, a group that seeks to move the party away from Trump’s control. is trying.
“His ego was never letting him accept defeat and go quietly into the night,” she said. “But I wonder how respectable Republicans are among elected officials”.
Instead of expressing any opposition to the events of January 6, Trump has often appeared upbeat and has been lying about his 2020 election losses. He repeatedly – and falsely – says that the “real” rebellion was on November 3, the date of the 2020 election when Democrat Joe Biden won a 306-232 Electoral College victory and a 7 million popular vote margin.
Federal and state election officials and Trump’s own attorney general have said there is no credible evidence that the election was tainted. The former president’s allegations of fraud were also dismissed by courts, including a Trump-appointed judge.
Fearless, Trump is preparing for another race for the White House in 2024, and polls show that, at this point, he will easily walk away with the GOP nomination.
For Trump, the extraordinary result is the product of sheer willpower and a misinformation campaign that began long before the election, when he insisted he could lose if the election was “rigged” and failed to accept defeat. will not commit.
His refusal to accept reality flourished with the approval of most Republican leaders, who, for fear of dissolving a party, ignored the seriousness of the rebellion, whose base is firmly aligned with Trump’s and what happened on Jan. His attempts to downplay her seriousness. 6.
According to a poll released this week by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs, five people died during or immediately after the riots, while less than half of Republicans remembered the attack as violent or extremely violent. Huh. Nearly 3 in 10 Republicans said the attack was not violent.
The situation has stunned and depressed critics in both political parties, who were convinced that the rebellion would force Republicans to abandon the Trump era once and for all.
He became the first president in American history to be impeached twice. The second impeachment focused on his role in stirring up the rebellion, but Trump was acquitted in a Senate trial, a clear sign that he will face some consequences for his actions.
“It was hoped when we were in the safe room that we would go back and the Republicans would see how crazy this was, how fragile our democracy was, what President Trump had done, and they would abandon it and we would all come together,” Rep. he said. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., describing the events of that day. Instead, she said, “there were people defending the rebels and defending Trump and continuing with the challenge and the big lie.”
Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a Republican who, along with Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, has emerged as one of the few anti-GOP Trump critics in Congress, predicted that Trump’s grip on the party would “gone away” by the summer. . But Kinzinger, who recently announced his decision not to run for re-election, blamed House Republican leader and Trump ally Kevin McCarthy for proving him wrong.
Kinzinger, referring to the trip to Florida as a party in late January 2020, said, “The only thing I underestimated would be the impact one person would have on him, and that’s Kevin McCarthy and his Mar-a-A-K. Lago’s Journey.” On the verge of chaos. With their eyes set to retake the House in 2022, Trump and McCarthy agreed to work together and released a photo of them smiling side by side.
“Kevin McCarthy is legitimately the only reason Donald Trump is still a force in the party,” Kizinger said. “That whole-hearted hug, I saw first of all in the members, terrified them to not only take on Trump, but in some cases even embrace him wholeheartedly.”
McCarthy’s aides did not respond to a request for comment on Kizinger’s characterization.
Others, however, point to fractures that suggest Trump’s power is waning.
Banned from Twitter and denied his other social media megaphone, Trump no longer controls the news cycle like he did in office. He canceled a news conference scheduled for Thursday after pressure from some Republican allies who warned that such an event was not advised.
During last year’s most prominent elections, Republicans like Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin strategically kept Trump at arm’s length. Youngkin’s victory created a possible model for candidates running on a battlefield where suburban voters are a major bloc uncomfortable with the former president.
While Trump’s endorsement is coveted in many midterm primary races, it has also failed to clear the ground in some major races. Trump has similarly struggled to keep other Republicans from eyeing the 2024 presidential nomination. His former vice president, secretary of state and a handful of Senate aides have made frequent trips to early-voting states, prepared for potential campaigns and denied running against Trump.
“When someone walks out of the Oval Office, the most powerful office in the world, to sit by the swimming pool at Mar-a-Lago, his influence is diminished,” said John Bolton, a former Trump national security adviser. Bolton has funded extensive national and state-level polling on the topic last year, which found Trump’s influence and the power of his support to be significantly diminished since he left office.
“I really think the evidence is clear that people have worked with Trump,” Bolton said. “They still have support, but it’s declining. Honestly, it’s not falling as fast as I’d like to see and it’s not going below zero. But among real people, it’s declining.”
Trump is facing multiple investigations, including in New York, where prosecutors are investigating whether his real estate company misled banks and tax officials about the value of his assets in order to obtain favorable loan terms. Inflated or reduced them to reduce tax savings. New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office confirmed this week that it has submitted submissions to Trump and his two eldest children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., as part of an investigation into the family’s business practices. Both children have been major political surrogates for Trump.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, the January 6 committee continues to investigate the Trump White House’s involvement in the deadly rebellion.
Trump is still eyeing 2024, even as he looks to the 2020 election. After spending 2021 raising money and declaring support for candidates who parrot his election, Trump’s team is preparing to pivot to helping those candidates win with a stepped-up rally schedule and financial aid. including transfers in the accounts of the candidates. and targeted advertising.
According to aides, Trump sees the midterm as a cornerstone for his next campaign, and intends to use the cycle to position himself for his party’s nomination.
Meanwhile, voting rights advocates are increasingly concerned as states with Republican legislatures push forward legislation that would allow them to influence or eliminate votes in future elections. He fears what might happen if the Trump-backed candidate for secretary of state and attorney general who says the election was stolen finds himself in positions that could affect the outcome in 2024.
“It’s a concerted effort to undermine our public’s confidence in the electoral system, so in 2022 and 2024, if they don’t like the election – and it’s Republican – they can reverse it,” Whitman said. President of States United Action, a nonpartisan non-profit organization that aims to protect the integrity of future elections. “We are in a very delicate place.”
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