Trump’s bad week is bad news for his comeback

CNN
—

Former President Donald Trump’s bad week is bad news for his comeback.

His family business was convicted of criminal tax fraud on Tuesday. His January 6 committee of the House of Representatives decided to refer the offenders to the Justice Department. His call to end the Constitution has again put Republicans on edge.

So much premature political obituary has been written for Trump that it would be silly to ignore him when he starts his third consecutive White House candidacy.

But it’s getting harder and harder to see how the man who rewrote America’s political strategy can come back from weeks like this.

“After this midterm election, after what happened in 2020, I think Georgia might be remembered as the state that finally beat Donald Trump,” said senior CNN political commentator Scott Jennings, Republican. , after CNN predicted that Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock would win. A full six-year term.

Jennings is not a fan of Trump, but he is an avid supporter of Republican politics.

“Even if we lose Georgia in the presidential election and lose in the Senate election, this is not a state the Republicans should lose,” he said.

Walker’s loss, despite a huge infusion of cash from Republicans in Washington and the borrowed ground game of recently re-elected Republican Governor Brian Kemp, has given Republicans a boost in election naysayers and support for Trump. Another painful reminder that general election defeat comes when faced with voters in a general election.

“Every Republican in this country needs to hold Donald Trump accountable for this,” said Georgia Lieutenant Governor Jeff Duncan, citing Walker and the Georgia Republicans who won statewide offices this year. pointed out that the difference was Trump’s involvement. He said the party must turn around to remain competitive.

Trump will dismiss all setbacks as part of a “witch hunt,” but that may be a harder catchall to use against fellow jurors than public officials.

And it’s harder to say a lawsuit against his company is flawed when it’s built on the testimony of a former chief financial officer with whom he worked for decades.

The Trump Organization stems from a years-long scheme that Manhattan District Attorney’s Office prosecutors said generous perks and benefits were paid to Trump employees but weren’t reported to tax authorities as income. He was found guilty on all charges.

Neither Trump nor his family were personally charged in this case. However, Trump and his three children are facing another civil lawsuit filed by the New York State Attorney General, which is unlikely to go to trial until next October.

The scrutiny New York authorities applied to Trump’s company finances led to those tax evasion convictions.

The bigger question looming over that conclusion is that the scrutiny applied by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attacks and the Justice Department has determined that his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the consequences of the whether it will lead to federal criminal charges against him for his role in influence. Mob in the Capitol.

A panel on Jan. 6 could recommend that the Justice Department indict Trump or his supporters, and CNN reported that panel members believed Trump and some of his closest associates would seek peace. reported that they widely agreed to commit crimes by pursuing a conspiracy to impede the transfer of power.

But the committee, which includes outgoing Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, is divided on what to do.

Committee chair Benny Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, said Tuesday that members will make referrals to criminals, but did not provide details, saying the panel will identify individuals who may be referred. He said he hadn’t narrowed down the scope.

As reported by CNN, the Commission said, according to multiple sources, that “evidence of possible obstruction, possible perjury, possible tampering with witnesses, and possible referral of criminals to the Justice Department. We have even gone so far as to appoint a sub-committee of members to assess how to present the

The commission’s referral to the criminals, along with the long-awaited final report, could come just before the incoming Republican House majority drops the investigation, adding to the Justice Department’s plethora of efforts to overturn the election and the riots. can help focus your research. .

CNN’s Jamie Gangel noted on Tuesday that the Justice Department is seeking testimony and evidence gathered by the Jan. I’m here.

Instead of focusing on the next election, Trump remains fixated on losing 2020.

Among his few appearances since announcing his 2024 candidacy was a video to raise money for groups that aid those who have been tried by the government for participating in the Capitol riots. There are initiatives.

Trump’s obsession with losing in 2020 continues to motivate his public statements, his plans to consolidate power within the party and remove potential major Republican challengers from his path. complicating the

A bizarre call, posted on his Twitter-like Truth Social platform, to repeal the law and constitution in favor of a 2020 redo, whose rhetoric is built around fidelity to the country’s sacred founding document. It continues to resonate with political parties that are often criticized.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters on Tuesday, “If you don’t have the will to support the Constitution, you’re going to have a pretty hard time running for president.

Not surprisingly, Kentucky Republicans criticized Trump. But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s evasion says more.

McCarthy’s impossible mission is to win the Speaker’s gavel by getting 218 votes from 222 House Republicans when all members of the House vote in January.

His problem is that the far right of the party, about 40 members of the Freedom Caucus allied with Trump, will take the outrageous approach that he uses the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip for government money. He needs their support and is having a hard time getting it.

Against that background, when asked about Trump’s call, the California Republican simply said, “I fully support the Constitution.”

Other Republican leaders were caught off guard when CNN asked about the comments.

Rep. Steve Scalise, the second-ranked Republican in the House, could stand in if McCarthy doesn’t get the support within the Republican Party to become chairman, but when Trump’s comments were read to him , said he would not support ending the constitution.

A Louisiana Republican said it was “the most important document in the history of the world, second only to the Bible,” and declined to comment on whether the former president should get out of election denial.

Scalise and McCarthy are relatively mainstream Republicans, and Trump’s recent social predilections include White Nationalist Nick Fuentes and anti-Semitic rapper Kanye West (now known as Ye). It becomes more extreme when eating, for example.

That was last week’s controversy. But this week is off to an equally bad start.