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With former U.S. president Donald Trump’s history-making criminal conviction a done deal, politicians, pundits, and the general public alike are all scrambling to make sense of the new landscape. For we are now in an unexplored political wildness, searching for a modern-day Lewis and Clark to help chart a course for where we go from here.
The situation is complicated by events that have been unfolding at a blinding pace.
First, there was Friday’s reaction from the two principals in this drama. Billed as a news conference, Trump talked to a mixture of reporters and supporters at Trump Tower in New York that morning. It was classic Trump: Entirely off the top of his head and without notes. And in typical Trump fashion, he verbally meandered for a little more than thirty minutes touching on more than a dozen issues.
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Trump made perhaps his most important point at the very start: “If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone.” That will likely be the theme of his campaign messaging in the days and weeks ahead. He blasted the trial as rigged and twice used the word “fascists” before wrapping up the event without taking questions from the news media.
Some two hours later – and 225 miles to the south – incumbent president Joe Biden made his first public comments since the verdict was returned Thursday evening. And he was the polar opposite of Trump.
Speaking at the White House (though not from the Oval Office as had earlier been discussed), Biden’s comments were brief and ostensibly non-partisan – although he did push back on Trump’s claims. After lauding the justice system, he went on to jab both his rival and his supporters, saying “it’s reckless, dangerous, and irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged, just because they don’t like the outcome.”
Biden went on to talk about efforts to find peace for the Israel-Hamas War still underway in Gaza. When a reporter shouted a question about Trump as he was walking out of the room, Biden stopped, gave a wry smile, and then went on his way.
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Pollsters are tripping all over themselves, offering quickie sampling results of public opinion on the guilty verdict. As of this writing, no crystal-clear gauge of feelings about it has emerged.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted during the first 48 hours following the verdicts found that one in ten registered GOP voters were less likely to vote for Trump following his conviction – although other mainstream media outlets pointed out this number was identical to polling conducted before the verdicts.
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3. Be careful about emphasizing the 1-in-10 GOP voters who say they are *less likely* to vote for Trump after his conviction, per Ipsos.
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) June 1, 2024
That finding is identical to what NPR/PBS/Marist found of GOP voters before the conviction — with most saying it doesn't make difference
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A whopping 56 percent of GOP voters said the verdicts would have no impact on their support for Trump, while 35 percent said they were now more likely to support him, according to the Reuters/Ipsos numbers.
“Among independent registered voters, 25 percent said Trump’s conviction made them less likely to support him in November, compared to 18 percent who said they were more likely and 56 percent who said the conviction would have no impact on their decision,” Reuters reported.
Bottom line? It will be awhile before the polls that matter – the pivotal battleground state surveys – show us the real impact of the verdicts.
What is beyond dispute, however, is that impassioned partisans on both sides are opening their purse strings and donating bundles of cash. The Trump campaign reported Friday morning that it had hauled in nearly $35 million in the first 12 hours after the verdict was returned.
Though there’s no word yet on how big their take was, the Biden campaign and many other Democratic candidates were likewise busily fundraising off Trump’s conviction.
It now becomes a matter of determining just how much impact the guilty-on-all-counts decision will have on voters—especially independent swing voters. They are the key to carrying the half dozen or so swing states that will decide the election in the Electoral College.
Up next on the 2024 election calendar: Trump’s sentencing in a Manhattan courtroom has been scheduled for Thursday, July 11, 2024. Perhaps not so coincidentally, the national GOP convention that will formally nominate Trump gets underway in Milwaukee the following Monday.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.
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14 comments
“If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone.” They already did to Jan. 6 PATRIOTS. Never forget.
…and Julian Assange! While I think this is all nothing more than a uni-party sh-t show with Trump in the starring role, if by chance it is real, this is what he gets for turning his back on the J-6’ers, Julian Assange, and others. Poetic justice if it happens to be real.
Jan 6 traitorous insurrectionists went to jail, another case of the justice system prevailing. Thanks for the reminder!
If they can do this to me they can do it to anyone. Hmm, I guess that is undeniably true. If I sleep with a porn star, run for President, pay the porn star coverup money so the voters will not find out about the affair I had with a porn star while my wife was home with our new child, and if I then file tax returns classifying the porn star payments as deductible legal fees, all while also filing the same lie on my business records; yes they can arrest me and charge me with the same crimes they charged Trump with. I’m really worried about that.
Also, yes if I break into the Capitol Building, beat cops over the head with flag polls, spray them with mace and bear spray, threaten to kill the Vice President and the speaker of the house, steal documents, trash the capitol building, and break into the house chamber with zip ties, I suspect they will arrest me.
Praying for your eyes to open.
River, no one is going to “open” their eyes to your delusions, that requires eyes and minds to be shut.
It is interesting to see the nationwide response of members of the Republican Party, that self-described “party of law and order” and “party of family values,” in light of the fact that they will now have as their Presidential nominee a convicted felon and a thrice-married adulterer who banged a porn star shortly after his wife gave birt
Remember, the GOP impeached Bill Clinton for lying about Monica Lewinski. Also remember when Mark Sanford called for Clinton to resign for having an affair.
These guys are nuts.
If you continually break multiple laws all over the country and beyond, then going to trial and getting convicted by a jury will happen….just like trump is learning right now.
Republicans are the party of traitors, criminals and religious bigots. Why are you surprised the rest of America wants you jailed and forgotten!?! MAGA are anti-American slime.
How sad it must be to be a total media hack for trump.
This blogger probably pictured themselves as a true American patriot at one time.
Instead, this blogger is an anti-American, pro-authoritarian bootlicker. Just another pathetic cult member hoping for a civil war, because the criminal it supports keeps losing court case after court case after court case….along with losing elections all the way down the ballot with increasing frequency with each passing election year.
Just another douchebag who wants to be me…
Nobody wants to be you, kid. : )
Yep! They want to be me, too. I feel your pain, Bro!
“Nobody is above the law.”
See, that line is… well, it should be the pinnacle of society, where everyone is held accountable, no matter how rich or how powerful they may become.
“If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone.”
This framing Trump is doing turns the ideal for justice on its head, that someone who was rich and powerful was found guilty of something they actually did, so now anyone can be charged and found guilty of breaking the law. And that’s bad!
You clowns have no idea how ridiculous y’all are behaving, but hopefully you’ll serve as a cautionary tale to future generations.