It’s Time for Republicans to Come to Terms with Trump’s Legal PerilBy Noah Rothman
August 15, 2023 2:18 PM
When it comes to analysis of Donald Trump’s growing legal liabilities, the conservative press has succumbed to something resembling a state of denial.
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Even before Trump finds himself in the dock, he and his attorneys will be compelled to devote most of their attention and resources to his legal defenses. Trump’s campaign donors are already contributing to what has functionally become a legal-defense fund. Those are resources that will not go to campaign advertising, canvassing, get-out-the-vote efforts, or dozens of other best practices to which winning campaigns adhere. The former president himself has warned his supporters that his legal calendar will take him away from the campaign trail for considerable periods of time. But Trump will never be far from voters’ minds. He will be ever-present, looming angrily on their television screens in grainy courtroom sketches.
Renominating Trump as the Republican candidate for president will all but ensure that the 2024 general election becomes a proxy argument over the validity of his claims regarding 2020 election malfeasance and the legitimacy of the criminal charges he faces in relation to his conduct shortly after his loss. Republican elected officials, GOP committees, and their independent allies will have to devote considerable resources to conditioning the public into believing something it presently doesn’t: that the charges he faces are unserious and politically motivated. That will be a heavy lift.
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https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/08/its-time-for-republicans-to-come-to-terms-with-trumps-legal-peril/
