I watched Iowa voting results last night. It was disappointing. I wondered, “do Trump voters know that he is facing 4 criminal investigations, with 91 separate indictments?” So, I asked my Dad, who is very old and retired, and watches Fox News all day and all night. And he said “Yes, but they are all politically motivated, and they will all be dismissed”. So, let’s take a look.
This is from the far-left New York Times, updated January 9th, 2024:
State and federal prosecutors are pursuing multiple investigations into Donald J. Trump’s business and political activities, with the cases expected to play out over the coming months. Here is a guide to the major criminal cases involving the former president.
January 6th riot:
Related to Mr. Trump’s efforts to retain power after the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. A federal special counsel’s sprawling inquiry has been examining the various ways in which Mr. Trump sought to stay in power despite losing to Joseph R. Biden Jr., culminating in the attack on the Capitol by a mob of Mr. Trump’s supporters.
On Aug. 1, Mr. Trump was indicted on four charges: one count of conspiracy to violate rights, one count of conspiracy to defraud the government, and one count each of obstructing an official proceeding and conspiring to do so.
That one has a trial date set for March 2024.
Election interference in Georgia:
Related to efforts to reverse Mr. Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia. Mr. Trump and 18 of his associates were indicted in Fulton County, Ga., in August. All of them face conspiracy charges related to attempts to overturn the state’s results and subvert the will of voters. Three have already pleaded guilty.
The charges have been filed on this one, but no trial date has been set.
Handling of classified documents:
Related to Mr. Trump’s handling of sensitive government documents he took with him when he left office. In June, a federal grand jury in Florida charged Mr. Trump with 37 criminal counts, including unauthorized retention of national security secrets and obstruction of efforts by the government to retrieve the files. One of his aides, Walt Nauta, was also named in the indictment.
On July 27, three more charges against Mr. Trump were added, and prosecutors unsealed charges against a third defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, a property manager at Mr. Trump’s Florida residence.
The trial date on this one is set for May 2024.
Porn star hush money payments:
Related to hush-money payments to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 presidential campaign. Mr. Trump was charged in April with 34 counts of falsifying Trump Organization business records related to reimbursing Michael D. Cohen, his lawyer and fixer, for payments made to Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress.
The trial date for this one is set for March 2024.
According the New York Post, the amount of jail time Trump would get if convicted on all 91 felony charges is “up to 712 years and six months”.
So, the chance that Trump supporters are taking is that Trump will be found not guilty of all of these 91 criminal charges, even though some of these trials are going to happen in very blue states.
Have you ever heard the phrase “tarbaby”? It’s a metaphor for a sticky situation that gets worse, the more effort you commit to it. Right now, Republican voters are committing a lot of delegates to a man who I think will be behind bars on election day. And polls – yes, the polls that Trump voters love so much – clearly show that Trump loses a ton of support if he is convicted of a felony.
The Hill puts the number at “almost a quarter”:
Nearly a quarter of former President Trump’s supporters say he should not be the Republican nominee for president in 2024 if he is convicted of a crime, according to a survey released Tuesday.
The New York Times/Siena College poll found 24 percent of respondents who said they would vote for Trump in the upcoming election also say he should not be the nominee if found guilty in one of his legal trials, “even if he has won the most votes.”
Now it’s time to ask one of my favorite questions to Trump supporters: What did you hope to achieve in the long-term by doing what felt good to you in the short-term? I would really like an answer from Trump supporters. What is the evidence that Trump will not get convicted of at least some of these charges, and then lose tons of votes in the general election, especially the trials taking place in blue states, with blue state juries? What is the evidence that a felony conviction will not cause Republicans to lose the general election in November?
WINTERY KNIGHT 
“What did you hope to achieve in the long-term by doing what felt good to you in the short-term?”
I hope someone who is a strong Trump supporter will answer. I am not a supporter, but will vote for him if he’s the nominee. I might vote for him in the primary depending on how things go.
With respect, I don’t think your question is relevant. I think you are failing to see it through their eyes.
I think many/most Trump supporters simply see Trump as the only hope for change. It simply doesn’t matter if he loses, and they’re not all Republicans anyway. If he loses, it’s business as usual. If another Republican could win, it’s business as usual. They don’t think there is a difference, and they aren’t thinking about Republican strategy or Republican victory. They have come to not like Republicans as much as Democrats.
They have a point.
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As much as I sympathize with you, WK, I also *thoroughly* understand Trump voters who continue to support Trump for the simple fact that Trump’s 2016 candidacy and his Presidency was the victim of a soft coup by the corrupt media, the corrupt Democrat Congress (and weak-willed Republican types), corrupt Federal bureaucrats and a host of others. From the Flynn mess to the Carter Page fiasco, to Russia-gate to a wiretap on Trump campaign phones, to two fraudulent impeachments (I could list hundreds of more small and large corruptions).
Americans are reluctant to let even more unlawful, illegitimate, and absolutely un-American “lawfare” interfere with their right to right a nation-historic wrong and support his return to the Presidency.
Put it this way: Your argument hinges on the (not incorrect) thought that Trump will be a convicted felon on election day 2024 and this will disport Trump voters. That’s EXACTLY what the Left is aiming for. Those lawsuits, investigations and prosecutions, however, are ALL INVALID. They are a continuation of the illegal, unconstitutional and treasonous behaviors that happened from 2015-2021.
Trump voters – me included – are torn between legitimizing those actions and feel like voting for Vivek or DeSantis is the equivalent of capitulating to the Left’s treason.
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Thank you for explaining all that.
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I’m not a Trump supporter. However, the one measure of sympathy I have for Trump supporters is that whatever Trump may or may not have done, the Federal government has proven that they’re not actually seeking justice.
Take the classified documents case for example. Even if Trump is guilty (and I believe he probably is in that case), his actions are not nearly as harmful as the results of Hillary Clinton’s private email server that almost certainly resulted in classified information in the hands of foreign governments. However, James Comey went on TV and told the American people that, “No reasonable prosecutor would bring charges in such a case.”
If that’s really true, no reasonable prosecutor should be bringing charges against Trump for actions that were certainly less harmful than what Clinton, by Comey’s own admission, could not be charged for. The state has proven that it only cares about crimes committed by its political rivals.
Trump is not the best candidate for President, but that’s due to his policy positions and what he failed to do when he was already President. If we’re going to reject candidates based on their legal troubles, then the law must be applied evenly to candidates of both parties.
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I agree with you that the federal government is not seeking justice.
I’m concerned about how a conviction would lose him the election, according to polls. And I’m also concerned that he’s not good at defending himself with lawyers like Alina Habba.
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WK – That too is part of the “total lawfare” strategy being used by the Left. Recall that since the Bush/Gore election in 2000, the Left has contested EVERY election. They’ve sent alternate electors, they filed hundreds of lawsuits, they’ve delayed certification, they’ve fomented riots (Occupy Wall Street, Antifa, BLM, Trayvon Martin, “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” to name a few), they’ve committed treason (RussiaGate); they’ve colluded with media and former “Intelligence” officials (who, btw, recently admitted in court filings that they KNEW the Hunter Laptop was real weeks before they released the discovery of the laptop to the media).
They’ve done all of that and NONE of their lawyers was ever attacked, prosecuted, investigated, or threatened with disbarment. Every one of Trump’s lawyers has been subjected to unconscionable and unprecedented attacks.
As a “recovering” lawyer myself, I can tell you, for some matters, I would rather stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a lawyer from Widener than a lawyer from Harvard or Penn or Yale. Most of those types of lawyers aren’t great at the nuts-and-bolts issues that persuade juries and judges in small-time local courts.
Widener is a perfectly fine private law school with a strong reputation.
I have no opinion about Habba’s lawyering, mainly because she’s willing to step up and defend Trump when every other lawyer who has done that has been destroyed by the media and state Bar fascists. That takes guts.
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Every indictment against Trump is proof that we are under communist control and unequal lawfare. Collaborating with communists for a DeSantis victory is not the way to go.
If they can do this to Trump, then they can put you in the gulag for the rest of your life just for posting your blog, WK.
I prefer DeSantis, but I’ll vote for Trump as a political prisoner of the Left. Just the fact that they can arrest Trump, pro-lifers, and Trump supporters with no retribution is proof that we are lost forever or very close to it. Working with the evildoers by supporting communist “indictments” is not the way to go.
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My view on this is that Trump had his 4 years to fight the enemy you describe and he failed. Instead, he offered amnesty to 1.8 million illegals, refused to build the wall, let BLM and Antifa riot loot and burn, let Fauci and Birx shut the country down and now he wants to build the FBI a huge new headquarters. He is not the person to do the job that needs doing. DeSantis fires Soros DAs, beats the teacher unions, enacts school choice, cuts taxes, delivers budget surpluses, and he shut down BLM and Anitifa riots. Trump talks tough, but he delivers little. His election loss was a result of a bill he signed into law.
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There’s a distinct possibility that every comment above is correct.
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I am not a Trump supporter. I didn’t vote for him in either of the last two presidential elections. But I am tempted to vote for him just to spite the left. They have engaged in so much dishonest activity over the last several years and spewed so much hatred toward Trump and his supporters that my emotional side wants to see Trump win just to spite them. I realize that’s not the best reason to vote for somebody, but I am just expressing my emotions. In reality, I would not be surprised if neither Trump nor Biden are on the ballot in November.
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Jweaksnc nailed it, all of the above is true. WK, DeSantis looks like he’d be a better President and I’ll vote for him in my primary if he is still running. Also, working with the scraps evildoers leave us is a poor long term strategy and I can’t do anything about how someone else fights.
I personally think it’s wiser to accept what they did to Trump in order to put a candidate in with a higher ceiling who can then use his 8 years to correct the system.
Trump, even if in, can’t do anything. They’ll all ignore his orders and won’t suffer for it and an open war follows. But that doesn’t mean it’s hopeless to me, it just means that is an unwise tactic in this specific situation. The commies are suffering in Florida due to better tactics without a revolution, so my thinking is that we are unwisely giving a harsh word and stirring up anger by trying for Trump instead of DeSantis.
I think the attitude of wanting to fight the commies at every step and punching them back for the coup is the right attitude. I just don’t agree with the tactic.
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