Tag: GOP

Categories
Donald Trump Elections GOP Uncategorized

#TrumpInHiding Trends After GOP Bars Donald From VA Governor Race

There’s an incredibly contentious (and closely watched) gubernatorial race taking place in the state of Virginia which pits Democrat Terry McAuliffe against Republican Glenn Youngkin, and it’s bringing lots of attention to the state as a possible harbinger of what can be expected in the 2022 midterm elections.

As you’d expect, Democrats have been sending their political stars to Virginia to campaign for McAuliffe. Among those who have made an appearance for the Democrat: President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden; former President Barack Obama; and Stacey Abrams.

You’d think the GOP would counter with the biggest name in their party, former President Donald Trump. But they haven’t, and Youngkin has taken great pains to distance himself from the Donald, The Hill reports:


Democrats are trolling Donald Trump over Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin’s efforts to distance himself from the former president, including by flying a plane near his Mar-a-Lago resort asking why Youngkin won’t let Trump campaign with him in Virginia.

Add to that a brilliant video from the good folks at MediasTouch, and what you have is a viral posting along with a trending hashtag on Twitter: #TrumpInHiding. Here’s the video:

Since that video was posted on social media, the new hashtag has been used nearly 32,000 times by Twitter users, sending it through the proverbial roof and no doubt enraging Trump, who can’t respond because he’s banned from Twitter and Facebook.

Want to see some of the tweets trolling Trump? Of course you do:

ย 

Categories
Congress Elections GOP Whining

Congressional Republicans Blasted As ‘Cowards’ After Skipping Rally For Capitol Rioters

On Saturday, a couple hundred protesters showed up at the “Justice for J6” rally in Washington, D.C. The crowd was reportedly so sparse that media and police outnumbered the people there to show their support for the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, many of whom are still in custody and facing years in prison.

Most notably absent at the rally were Congressional Republicans, including Reps. Matt Gaetz (FL) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), both of whom have said they think the Jan. 6 rioters are being treated unfairly.

The absence of the elected GOP members was certainly noticed by the rallygoers, according to the right-wing Washington Times:

โ€œWhereโ€™s McCarthy? Whereโ€™s McConnell? Theyโ€™re all useless,โ€ one demonstrator in the crowd yelled.

Steve Merkel of Baltimore who attended the rally called Republicans โ€œcowards,โ€ and said it was wrong that no one came out to support nonviolent offenders charged over the riot.

Merkel added:

โ€œTheyโ€™re cowards because theyโ€™re not standing up for those constitutional rights. Theyโ€™re supposed to be protected. I call them political animals who are afraid of bad media coverage.โ€

What’s this? Trouble in right-wing insurrectionist paradise? Sure sounds that way.

As Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) later remarked, the pathetic turnout and lack of any elected Republicans in attendance suggests that the Cult of Trump may be dissipating:

“The police showed up in force, and they had the presence that they should have had on January 6th, considering what Donald Trump was promising, and I think that may have been a deterrent. Also, perhaps Donald Trumpโ€™s ability to inspire people to show up on his behalf may also be fading.”

Let’s hope so, because Trump and his minions are clearly a national security threat to the United States.

ย 

Categories
Donald Trump Elections GOP Politics Polls

Going Down: GOP Support For Trump To Be 2024 Nominee Plummets 24%

Despite the fact that most Republican political figures continue to kowtow to failed, one-term, twice-impeached former President Donald Trump, it turns out that many GOP voters don’t think the disgraced former chief executive would help them retake the White House.

A new poll from CNN has bad news for Trump as he flirts with running again in 2024:

“Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say, 63% to 37%, that Trump should be the leader of the Republican Party. But they are about evenly split over whether having the defeated former President back on the ticket in 2024 would be an advantage: 51% say that Republicans have a better chance of retaking the presidency if Trump is the nominee, with 49% saying the party would be better off with a different nominee. Thatโ€™s a very different landscape from 2019 when more than three-quarters of Republicans said their party had a better shot in 2020 with Trump as their nominee than they would with a different candidate.”

The numbers are even worse for Trump among college educated voters and independents. Independent voters broke for Trump in 2016 but abandoned him four years later, casting their ballots for President Joe Biden:

“Trumpโ€™s support isnโ€™t equally distributed throughout the party: 69% of Republicans without a college degree think Trump should head the party, compared with 49% of those who hold a college degree. A 72% majority of conservatives say Trump should head the party, compared to 49% among the smaller bloc of moderates in the party. And 71% of self-identified Republicans want Trump to lead the party, compared with 51% of Republican-leaning independents who say the same.”

Those numbers don’t bode well for Trump or the GOP, according to a panel of experts who appeared on “Inside Politics” Sunday, with CNN analyst Jeff Zeleny noting:

“That is fascinating there and not a good trajectory and what has happened during this period? Former president Trump has been sticking his head up more and been more active– not like he’s sitting on the sidelines. This isn’t happening in a vacuum. As I travel around the country and talk with Republicans and voters and other rank and file folks, there is, even among Trump supporters, not a lot of unanimity about they want him to come back.”

That led CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins to add:

“You wonder if it only goes down further what does it change going forward. Part of it said that 58% of the Republicans without a college degree thought their chances would be better with Trump. But when you ask college grads, only 34% thought they would be better with Trump as the leader.”

Zeleny agreed, concluding:

“We’re seeing a delicate dance here and everyone waiting for him to disappear. The former president says he keeps teasing he’s going to have an announcement shortly — I don’t think it’s coming shortly at all. He’s going to draw that out in the next season perhaps. But this is not necessarily great news for Donald Trump, especially that declining number — that’s a fascinating number.”

Sounds like many in the Republican Party know that Trump is a loser. And with legal problems piling up against him, even if he does decide to run again, he could be doing so while under indictment, which isn’t exactly going to draw independent voters to him.

Here’s the video from CNN:

ย 

Categories
Coronavirus GOP

Republicans Brand DeSantis A ‘Sellout’ After He Urges Floridians To Get Vaccinated

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) thought his plan for dealing with COVID-19 in the Sunshine State had been a perfect balancing of public health and opposition to vaccines.

And then the Delta variant arrived, and suddenly DeSantis realized the tightrope he’d been walking was swaying dangerously, making him and his state one of the main hotspots for a resurgence of the disease, as the Wall Street Journal recently reported:

“The state accounts for one in five new infections in the U.S. and logged 73,181 cases over the past week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Florida had 341 cases per 100,000 people over the past week, second only to Louisiana. The weekly total of new cases reported by Florida jumped more than fourfold between July 1 and July 22, reaching its highest point since mid-January.”

DeSantis realized he had no choice but to address the numbers coming from his state, so he spoke in favor of vaccines, admitting “vaccines are saving lives.”

And that’s when the blowback started, with many of DeSantis’ once loyal supporters accusing him of being a sellout, Politico notes, and possibly destroying the governor’s chances of being a legitimate presidential contender in 2024:

โ€œ’Donโ€™t let political correctness get in the way of health choices,’ former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn said recently of DeSantisโ€™ comments, speaking on ‘The Right Side with Doug Billings,’ a conservative radio host and podcaster.

Another conservative radio host, Stew Peters, last week called DeSantis a ‘sellout’ and suggested the governor was taking bribes, though didnโ€™t specify from whom.”

Of course, none of this should surprise anyone because the Republican Party has become a cult of death and conspiracy theories, refusing to accept facts, science, or medical advice. Their refusal to do the right thing and get vaccinated is causing many GOP-controlled states to see a surge in hospitalizations and deaths.

What happens next for DeSantis? Will he back away and let COVID have its way, or is he finally ready to be a responsible leader? According to CNN’s Chris Cillizza, the answer to that question will decide if the Florida governor has a political future, especially since he’s facing a shaky bid for reelection as governor next year:

“Depending on what you think of DeSantis, he has either been good or lucky to date in the pandemic. But the rising number of cases in Florida โ€“ coupled with the increased transmissibility of the Delta variant โ€“ poses a challenge that he hasnโ€™t had to deal with yet.

“DeSantis seems likely to be faced with a clear challenge sometime soon: Do whatโ€™s right for the state of Florida or continue to play to his 2024 ambitions by refusing to acknowledge that mitigation practices โ€“ masks, social distancing, etc. โ€“ are necessary.”

Based on DeSantis’ past statements and actions, don’t be surprised if COVID gets significantly worse in Florida and DeSantis winds up losing badly in 2022. And once that happens, he’ll be nothing but a failed has-been, just like his hero, Donald Trump.

Categories
Donald Trump Elections GOP

Trump Voters At GOP Leadership Summit Say They Donโ€™t Want Him To Run Again In 2024

On Friday, the unofficial kickoff of the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination took place in Des Moines as 1,200 evangelicals gathered to hear potential GOP candidates tell them why they’re the best choice to be standard bearer for conservatives.

James Pindell of the Boston Globe was also in attendance, and while he expected to hear unwavering support for ex-president Donald Trump, what he found was the most Republicans are ready to move on from Trump:

โ€œI agree with pretty much everything Trump did on policy as president, but I donโ€™t think it would be good for him or good for the country if he ran again,โ€ said Ken Hayes, a retired nonprofit worker from rural Fort Dodge, who said he prayed for Trump every day the man was in office.

There was still a core of support for Trump among those who showed up, but of the 15 attendees Pindell spoke with, not a one said they thought it would be a good idea for the Donald to run again in three years:

“For Mary Bloom, a 55-year-old homeschooling parent who attended Fridayโ€™s event and believes some of Trumpโ€™s claims about the 2020 election, ‘It is what it is and we all need to move on to the next election.’

“Indeed, while Iowa traditionally grants winners of the first-in-the-nation contest momentum in the presidential race, in 2024 it could do something else: show that the party is moving on. That subtext was apparent in speeches on Friday.”

ย 

For example, the words of former Vice President Mike Pence, who is seen by some as the natural next step after Trump. He told the crowd he was already tired of the Biden administration:

“After 177 days of open borders, higher taxes, runaway spending, defunding the police, abortion on demand, censoring free speech, canceling our most cherished liberties, Iโ€™ve had enough.”

David Kochel, a longtime Iowa GOP consultant, admits he thinks “without a doubt” that Trump would win the Iowa Caucuses. But he’s not sure if the former president will be in the running:

โ€œThe base doesnโ€™t know what Trump is going to do either. Everyone is in the same boat to see whether he will run. And who knows where we will all be in six months.”

That’s certainly true, because in six months there’s a better than even chance Donald Trump will be indicted and facing decades behind bars. And even if he does run, he’ll be doing so as a failed, one-term, twice-impeached loser. That’s not exactly a winning rรฉsumรฉ for a presidential contender.