WHAT DEMOCRATS WANT FROM TRUMP’S TRIAL. Former President Donald Trump is back in a Manhattan courtroom after a break Wednesday. On his way to the courthouse Thursday morning, Trump stopped at the site of a structure where he was greeted enthusiastically by staff chanting, “U. S. ! UNITED STATES!!” This took place the morning after President Joe Biden won approval from North American structural union leaders in Washington. While Biden was meeting with the big shots, Trump had a love for helmets. Like Trump’s stopover at a Harlem vineyard last week, this stopover was a planned occasion: Those things don’t happen by chance. But it showed that even during his trial, Trump can engage in a crusade before the court’s assembly.
This is evidently a limited type of campaign, with Trump confining himself to New York while Biden travels to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and other key states to campaign. But at least New York is the media capital of the world, and everything Trump does there will be visible. .
The Trump case is being prosecuted through a Democratic elected official from New York, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, with the invaluable help of a former senior Biden Justice Department official who just joined a local prosecutor’s office with the goal of searching for the former president. To protect himself, Trump also faces the fallout from the lawsuit filed through another Democratic congresswoman from New York, Attorney General Letitia James, and fees filed through the Democratic U. S. Attorney elected for Fulton County, Georgia, Fani Willis, and two indictments from the prosecutor. Trump selected through Biden’s Justice Department, Jack Smith.
It almost goes without saying that Democrats are delighted with the current situation. His party’s law enforcement officials have done a remarkable job of bringing charges, a total of 88 charges, against the de facto Republican presidential nominee. With all of Biden’s weaknesses — his age, the economy, immigration, and his 35 percent project approval score on a published ballot — they managed to put Trump in a box he would likely never get out of.
That’s what Democrats expect from Trump’s indictment. The box doesn’t have to be a prison cell, some would be very pleased to see it. It simply has to be anything that a) cripples Trump’s ability to crusade, b) bankrupts him or at least motivates him to use the campaign budget for bills, and c) erodes Trump’s appeal to an influential electorate that might be less likely to vote for him if convicted of a crime.
Biden and his campaign appear to be keen to criticize Trump for the hardships imposed by Democratic prosecutors. On Wednesday, a campaign aide mocked Trump’s inability to travel to the campaign because he has to appear in court. The spokesperson sent out a press release titled “Biden Campaign Statement on Trump Campaign Events Today. “The answer was, “He didn’t have one. ” He, he.
In a speech to journalism luminaries in Washington in March, Biden quipped, “Just yesterday, a defeated-looking guy came up to me and said, ‘I’m crushed by debt. I’m absolutely devastated. ‘” And I said, “I’m sorry, Donald, I can’t do it. “Washington’s leading journalists laughed.
So Biden and his crusading aides are satisfied if Trump goes bankrupt while strapped to a chair in a courtroom. The last advantage they hope to gain is, of course, votes. This is a tricky question. Obviously, Trump’s accusations have outweighed his own in the Republican race for No. 1, but the hope is that a conviction will have the opposite effect among general election voters.
Democrats have paid close attention to ballots asking the electorate most likely to be susceptible to Trump whether they would turn their backs on Trump if convicted of a crime. The most recent ballot to this question comes from Quinnipiac University, which asked about the lawsuits in New York. “If convicted in this case, would you be more likely to vote for Donald Trump, less likely to vote for Donald Trump, or not?Is there no difference?
When the question was first asked in late March, before the trial began, 12 percent said a conviction would make them more likely to vote for Trump, while 29 percent said it would make them less likely and 55 percent said no. difference. . . Today, that question was asked again, as the trial enters its second week, with 15% saying they would be more likely to vote for Trump, while 21% said it would make them less likely, and 62% saying it would have no effect. Difference.
It’s too early to say a trend, but at least between these two polls, the number of people who said a conviction would make them less likely to vote for Trump decreased, while the number of people who said it would make them less likely to vote for Trump. more likely or not at all to make any difference. However, there is a margin of a few percentages of the electorate for whom conviction would mean that voting for Trump would be less likely.
These electors are the Democratic targets. If a conviction of Trump, even for an accounting misdemeanor inflated through dubious means into a felony, reduced his vote, then that may be very, very close in a close election. And if that happens, then for the Democrats, all the lawsuits, even if some went off the rails and never ended in a test, would have been worth it.