Still
Meanwhile, Trump is on the campaign trail busily trying to foment another insurrection/revolution a la Jan 6th. Can’t but still wonder if there isn’t something darker than the documents driving this desperation.
Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.
‘This Is the Final Battle’: Trump Casts His Campaign as an Existential Fight Against His Critics
NY Times – June 10
Final Battle
(link is behind a pay wall I believe)
Former President Donald J. Trump on Saturday cast both his indictments by prosecutors and his bid for the White House as part of a “final battle” with “corrupt” forces that he maintained are destroying the country.
The apocalyptic language came in Mr. Trump’s first public appearance since the 38-count federal indictment against him and a personal aide was unsealed — and in a state where he may soon face additional charges for his efforts to pressure Georgia election officials to overturn his 2020 election loss there. It was Mr. Trump’s second indictment in less than three months.
“This is the final battle,” Mr. Trump said in the speech to several thousand activists, delegates and members of the media who gathered in Columbus, Ga., at a brick building that was once an ironworks that manufactured mortars, guns and cannons for the Confederate Army in the Civil War.
Mr. Trump spoke about the threats to the nation. But his escalating language also showed something more fundamental was in increasing jeopardy: his own freedom.
“Either the Communists win and destroy America, or we destroy the Communists,” the former president said in Georgia, seeming to refer to Democrats. He made similar remarks about the “Deep State,” using the pejorative term he uses for U.S. intelligence agencies and more broadly for any federal government bureaucrat he perceives as a political opponent. He railed against “globalists,” “warmongers” in government and “the sick political class that hates our country.” …
Trump is desperate to regain the power of the presidency, and the GOP – in survival mode – is happy & willing to go along with him.
NYT: … Mr. Trump and his advisers are keenly aware that the Republican base overwhelmingly supports him in his legal battles and reflexively dismisses whatever facts prosecutors produce. The Trump campaign team has exploited that dynamic and put their opponents in the presidential primary in a lose-lose situation: Either they begrudgingly defend and praise the front-runner or they suffer the wrath of millions of voters.
The Columbus convention crowd that Mr. Trump addressed was beyond friendly: It was devotional. While this was ostensibly a convention for the Republican Party of Georgia, a casual observer might be forgiven for thinking it was the Trump Party of Georgia.
Mr. Trump’s name, slogans and lies about the 2020 election were proudly displayed by party activists. Women wore bejeweled Trump caps. Men wore caps reading “God, Guns and Trump.” References to the 2020 election were everywhere: T-shirts read “Trump won,” and plastered on delegates’ chests and backs were stickers bashing voting machines.
Like several other state parties around the country, the Republican Party in Georgia has been taken over by the hard-right, ardently pro-Trump base. …
In the unsealed indictment, federal prosecutors revealed for the first time how Mr. Trump had remained in possession of some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets, showing them off to visitors. The papers Mr. Trump kept included plans for retaliating to a foreign attack and details of American nuclear programs, according to the indictment. One image displayed boxes stacked next to a toilet in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom.
“Secret,” he bragged in a taped conversation, according to the indictment. “This is secret information. Look, look at this.”
Mr. Trump was joined on his private plane on Saturday by a small group of his closest advisers, including his core political aides. He was also joined by Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right congresswoman from Georgia, and by Representative Richard Hudson of North Carolina, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Several people close to Mr. Trump and his team privately acknowledged the facts in the case were damaging. But they were uncertain that the charges would have any more impact on Republican voters than a number of other scandals that did little to change public opinion. …
(Perhaps this situation can be defused if Biden, Schumer, Jeffries and the rest of the Dem leadership can reassure the GOP leaders that preservation of the US two-party system is absolutely essential, and the other party may as well be them, but Trump-free.)
Trump indictment is a ‘war on the Republican Party’: We have ‘crossed the Rubicon’
Fox News – March 31
(Fox & Trump have been using the ‘Rubicon’ metaphor to defend Trump. It is yet another act of projection, and misplaced. It was Julius Caesar who took his legion across the Rubicon, a small river between Gaul (now France) and Italy to threaten Rome and make JC the first Roman emperoro, endinf the Republic. Now we have Trump threatening to do likewise.)
Crossing the Rubicon
‘I just love that guy’: In New Hampshire, first-in-the-nation voters not swayed by latest Trump indictment
Boston Globe – June 10
Republicans gathered to shoot clays, chow down on hot dogs, and mingle with lesser-known presidential hopefuls who stopped through town Saturday. The candidate du jour: Ohio businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, whose presence was announced by simple white lawn signs declaring “TRUTH” in large blue letters.
Ramaswamy isn’t polling particularly well — he hovers in the low single digits — but his latest message vowing to pardon former president Donald Trump if he ends up being convicted of any of the 37 felonies he was charged with earlier this week landed well with voters at the Hillsborough County Republican Committee Flag Day Picnic, many of whom voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
Even the astonishing array of crimes alleged in the latest indictment — including alleged efforts to hide classified information from federal investigators — did not dissuade Trump’s staunchest supporters in this critical primary state for the GOP presidential contest. For some of them, it solidified their support.
“I’m gonna cast the vote for Trump because of it,” said 59-year-old Manchester resident Richard Olsen, who attended the Milford event with a handgun tucked in a holster belt. “And I want to see more candidates condemning what happened.”
Leading Republicans have distanced themselves from the former president in other ways but on this latest indictment against Trump, they have remained fairly quiet. That includes North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, who launched a longshot presidential bid this week. He stopped by the Milford event Saturday, and sidestepped a question from a reporter asking his opinion on how the indictment may play in the race. …
At Joanne’s Kitchen, a diner on Nashua, N.H.’s Main Street, a television mounted above the counter flashed with photos from the unsealed indictment: boxes of records being stored on the stage in a ballroom at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, on a bathroom floor, in a shower.
“I just love that guy,” said Gerry Michaud, a 79-year-old retired broom salesman. He looked up at the television as he took a sip of lemon water. “I think he’s going to survive.”
Michaud, a Republican who said he voted for Trump in the last two elections, proudly flies a Trump flag in front of his house in Brookline, N.H. …
Eugene Hartzell, a 73-year-old Nashua resident supported Trump in the past two elections, but is leaning toward supporting former vice president Mike Pence, who recently announced his candidacy.
“[Trump’s] not as good as he pretended to be,” said Hartzell, a Vietnam War veteran who believes Pence is more honest than Trump and “respects the Constitution.”
“If a president wants to make this country better, the most important thing is honor the Constitution,” he said.
New Hampshire state House Speaker Sherman Packard, who spoke at the picnic in Milford, said he worries Trump’s indictment will cast a shadow over his party.
“If things keep going wrong for him. I’m not sure how he stays in and wins,” he said.
But for now that seems to be a minority opinion among New Hampshire Republicans. Even some longstanding Trump critics say they doubt the indictment will hurt Trump’s performance in the primary here.
“You can tell because of the reaction of the other candidates,” said Fergus Cullen, a Trump critic who chaired the New Hampshire GOP in 2007 and 2008. “Given the choice to criticize former president Trump or use this as another opportunity to say he’s unqualified . . . they’re instead defending him. That tells you most of what you need to know.” …
LOL! Of course there are GOP Trump cultists in NH. So what?
Slightly confusing headline …
Pluralities of Americans support second Trump indictment, say charges are politically motivated
ABC News – June 11
There are sharp partisan differences, according to the survey.
A plurality of Americans think that former President Donald Trump should have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to his handling of classified documents, yet a near equal number say the charges are politically motivated, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll.
Trump willfully retained documents containing the nation’s most sensitive intelligence after he left office, exhibited some of them on at least two occasions and then tried to obstruct the investigation into their whereabouts, prosecutors allege in the indictment. Trump has repeatedly denied any allegations of wrongdoing.
Nearly half — 48% — of Americans think Trump should have been charged in this case, whereas 35% think he should not have been and 17% saying they do not know, per the ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel.
Not surprisingly, an overwhelming majority (86%) of self-identified Democrats believe the former president should have been charged. On the other hand, Republicans remain mostly loyal to Trump, with two in three (67%) saying the former president and current frontrunner for the Republican nomination should not have been charged. Independents are more divided, with 45% believing he should have been charged, a third saying he should not have been, and 22% saying they don’t know.
Overall, a solid majority of over three in five Americans find the charges either very (42%) or somewhat serious (19%), while only 28% of the public say it’s not too serious or not serious at all. One in ten say they don’t know. And party splits are expectedly polarized, with about nine in 10 Democrats saying the charges are very or somewhat serious while half of Republicans find them to be not too serious or not serious at all. A majority of independents (63%) find the charges very or somewhat serious, while 38% say they are not too serious or not serious at all.