Jailing Trump before RNC convention would seal red victory, GOP predicts
By
Rachel Schilke
and
Mabinty Quarshie
June 17, 2024 7:00 am
.
Republicans are warning Democrats that if former President Donald Trump’s sentence in his New York criminal case prevents him from attending the Republican National Committee convention, it will guarantee a red wave for the 2024 election.
Four days before the GOP gathers for the RNC’s convention on July 15, Judge Juan Merchan will sentence the former president after he was convicted of falsifying business records.
In the wake of a 12-member jury finding him guilty of 34 criminal counts tied to a hush money payment scheme during the 2016 election, Trump faces a fine, probation, or up to four years in prison per count. Home confinement is also an option after the historic conviction last month.
But Republicans are already telling Democrats to tread carefully, or else they will all but ensure that the GOP takes back the White House this November.
“I think the Democrat Party better be very cautious because if the [past] sitting president of the United States can’t attend the convention in person, they are essentially electing Donald Trump as president,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) told the Washington Examiner.
Republicans have blasted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump as political persecution and election interference from the Democratic Party.
If Merchan’s sentencing forces Trump to miss appearing at the convention physically, the move would “energize” Republicans, according to Van Orden.
“I think it’ll fire up the Republican base to the point where it’ll be unstoppable,” the Wisconsin Republican said. “And I think independent folks, like I just said, are going to say, ‘We don’t want this. This is not the United States of America that we want to live in. We want to be able to have free and open discourse between political parties without having to worry about being jailed.’”
more
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/presidential/3045535/jailing-trump-rnc-convention-victory-2024/
