“Unwittingly, they are doing us a favor. They’re making Donald Trump disqualified to run for president.”
It was darkly funny when Lisa Murkowski said this on the record on Wednesday night and it’s even funnier that Republican senators are saying it off the record today. Does one typically need to speak anonymously to pronounce someone’s political death? Corpses don’t retaliate, do they? I’ll give Murkowski and her anonymous allies this much: The Capitol riot hurt Trump and the Democrats’ presentation at the trial probably compounded the damage. If we had to rerun the election today, almost certainly he’d end up with fewer votes than he got on November 3. In fact, support for disqualifying him from office is averaging 55 percent across numerous polls, with even 20 percent or so of Republicans supportive of the idea. He’s a weaker candidate at the moment than he was three months ago and it’s entirely self-inflicted. But does that mean he’ll be a weaker candidate than the Democratic nominee in November 2024, particularly if that nominee is Kamala Harris? Of course not. Elections are binary choices and Americans’ memories are short. Anyone who thinks the trial has finished him off for good is looking for an excuse to argue that acquittal is no big deal because he’s already been kinda sorta disqualified anyway. “It just makes you realize what an a**hole Donald Trump is,” said one GOP senator after watching day two of the House managers’ presentation… “Unwittingly, they are doing us a favor. They’re making Donald Trump disqualified to run for president” even if he is acquitted, the senator said… “This reminded and confirmed and probably added deeper emotion to the view that the president’s involvement in the party, while it brought new people, it’s very damaging to who we are, what we believe and what we stand for — what we believe we stand for,” the second GOP senator said… A third GOP senator said the facts laid out in the impeachment trial underscore just how difficult it would be for Trump to portray himself as an electable presidential candidate in 2024… A fourth Republican senator agreed that Trump’s power in the party has been dealt a severe blow because of the detailed exposition of his behavior in the run-up to the Capitol attack and his subsequent actions.
