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The January 6 committee has laid out a pretty clear case that Donald Trump knowingly engaged in an illegal coup attempt, but yet the press still focuses on his future political aspirations.
For the past couple years, Trump has tried to purge anyone from the GOP who even mildly resisted his Big Lie. The New York Times somewhat quaintly describes this as “his post-presidential quest to consolidate his support” within the party. However you spin it, though, it’s apparently backfired and according to a New York Times/Siena College poll almost half of Republican primary voters want someone different — maybe even mentally stable — for president in 2024, and a “significant number” claim they wouldn’t vote for Trump if he were the nominee.
A clear majority of primary voters under 35 years old, 64 percent, as well as 65 percent of those with at least a college degree — a leading indicator of political preferences inside the donor class — told pollsters they would vote against Mr. Trump in a presidential primary.
This seems like the same people who opposed Trump during the 2016 primary but still crawled on their faces to vote for him against Hillary Clinton. The polls show that at least 49 percent of Republican primary voters would support Trump’s third nomination.
Trump responded to the Times article with his usual aplomb. The day it was released, he raged about the “failing New York Times” and their “fake polls, phony stories, and made up quotes. He whined” They are a disgrace to journalism and have set it back many many years. THE NEW YORK TIMES IS TRULY THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”
We guess he’s too sensitive, lazy, or stupid to dig deeper into the numbers: Fueled by men and voters without a college degree, Trump has a commanding lead over any potential primary challengers. He beats Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis 49 to 25 percent. Ted Cruz, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, and Mike Pompeo are all stuck in single digits. DeSantis, who was born 32 years after Trump, is popular with young Republicans, those with a college degree and those who said they voted for President Joe Biden in 2020. The theoretical Biden-to-DeSantis voter is not that shocking considering how many 2020 Biden voters in Virginia supported GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Fox News viewers prefer Trump to DeSantis 62 to 26 percent. That gap shrinks to just 16 points among less brainwashed Republican voters. Of course, the Times has an annoying habit of treating Trump like a normal candidate. His open embrace of political violence could make directly challenging him in a primary unwise for candidates who want to remain healthy.
PREVIOUSLY: Pull The Fire Alarm, Trump’s 2024 Coup Is Already Raging
If Trump runs, he’s the likely nominee, even though Biden/Trump 2024 is the rematch no one really wanted. The Times/Siena poll shows Trump trailing the president 44 to 41 percent. Not to be a negative Nelly, but these head-to-head polls are bullshit. We don’t elect the president through a direct popular vote. If we did, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton would’ve been president. Clinton beat Trump nationwide by two points, but his narrow victories in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania were what mattered. Trump came perilously close to winning the Electoral College in 2020.
It’s supposedly good news that almost 20 percent of Republicans believe Trump is a threat to democracy, but the Times interviewed voters who’d soured on Trump but still had some phony reason for not backing Biden.
Richard Bechtol, a 31-year-old Republican from Ohio, believes Trump is “divisive” and bears responsibility for the violence on January 6. He wishes Trump wouldn’t run at all.
But he said he would support Mr. Trump in 2024 in a rematch with President Biden.
“Biden is getting bullied by the left wing of his party and I worry about his cognitive function as well — actually, I worry about that with Trump, too,” he said. “It’s really a lesser-of-two-evils situation for me.”
This is not a “lesser-of-two-evils situation.” Trump is literally evil, whereas Biden is a normal, sane politician who won’t attack Congress. It’s also absurd how Republicans insist the Left is “bullying” Biden when the country is shifting further to the Right on his watch. The Supreme Court just overturned Roe v. Wade. Republicans can’t even take their wins and say no to overt fascism.
Gretchen Aultman, a 74-year-old Trump voter from Colorado, said Trump “was so abrasive and unpolished, and having him as president was just tearing the country apart,” but she can’t bring herself to vote for Biden because he’s so obviously senile.
“I can’t in good conscience vote for Biden,” she said. “I recognize the signs of being old, and his mental acuity is not going to last another two years.”
That’s the new Big Lie: Biden is mentally unfit and a socialist stooge. Meanwhile, it’s safe to assume Trump aims to just steal the next election outright, regardless of the results.
The Times covering 2024 like a standard horse race buries the lede, as well as representative democracy.
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