Former Illinois House Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs said at the first GOP debate next week in Milwaukee, “I want to see more people stand up to Donald Trump on that stage.”
Former Illinois House leader Jim Durkin is one of the few top Republicans willing to say it’s time for the party to move on from Donald Trump.
“The Trump fever needs to be broken,” Durkin said when we talked on Tuesday, the day after Trump’s latest criminal indictment — his fourth in the past few months — was filed by Fulton County, Ga. District Attorney Fani Willis.
Trump is accused, with 18 others — including two from the Chicago area — of trying to overthrow Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory in Georgia. The state indictment tracks in many ways the narrower federal charges special counsel Jack Smith filed in Washington.Opinion
Durkin isn’t sure of how to cure Trump fever.
It has infected the diehard loyalists who make up his base. Indictments don’t matter. Other Republicans debunking Trump’s fraudulent claims he won the 2020 election don’t matter. Criminal charges don’t matter.
But a start — maybe some baby steps — could take place next week.
That when many of the 2024 GOP presidential primary contenders face off at the first Republican debate, scheduled for Aug. 23 at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum. It’s hosted by Fox News Channel, with anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum to co-moderate. Trump is not expected to show.
I asked Durkin what he wanted to hear from the GOP candidates who do.
“I want to see more people stand up to Donald Trump on that stage,” he said.
