Columns, Congress, Politics

Could Trump Win By Simple Attrition Rather than Vindication?

Below is my Fox.com column on the shift of fortunes for former president Donald Trump in the last week. Trump does not appear to be necessarily moving ahead legally but he is still prevailing politically in a curious war of attrition.

Here is the column:

While Woody Allen once said that  “80 percent of success is showing up,” former president Donald Trump proved this week that the same could be said about “just sticking around.” Trump had one of the best weeks as cases and critics seemed to implode from the disqualification effort in Washington to the scandal in Georgia. Yet, Trump is not out of the woods and is facing significant threats in what is becoming a war of attrition.

In Washington, the Supreme Court gave a chilly reception to the disqualification effort that bordered on the glacial. While law professors like Harvard’s Laurence Tribe insisted that the basis for barring Trump from office under the 14th Amendment was “unassailable,” the justices seemed utterly unconvinced and there is the possibility that the entire effort could now be defeated unanimously. Even liberal justice Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson called the effort anti-democratic.

In Georgia, the case against Trump is floundering as allegations mount against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over her intimate relationship with her subordinate special prosecutor Nathan J. Wade. This week, a court filing alleged that Willis and Wade filed false claims in court on when their relationship began. The two prosecutors have insisted that they only became intimate after Willis hired Wade.  Wade’s former lawyer has reportedly come forward to contest that claim.

That allegation, if true, could make the continuation of Willis and Wade in the case untenable. Various defendants being prosecuted in Georgia are accused of false statements and filings in court. Of course, the removal of Willis and Wade will not necessarily end the case, but it will present logistical and optical problems for the office.

There are also calls for the removal of Alvin Bragg in New York, who is accused of being lax on crime overall despite his determined effort to convict Trump.

Trump has a curious fortune in critics who seem over time to combust in rather spectacular fashion. Michael Cohen, his former lawyer, went to jail and lost his law license.  At the Justice Department, various FBI officials from the Russian investigation were accused of wrongdoing and forced out of the Justice Department. That included James Comey who was found to have removed FBI material after Trump fired him and gave it to a friend who leaked it to the press. Another official pleaded guilty to criminal conduct associated with the Russian investigation.

In politics, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who attacked Trump for his treatment of women, was forced out of office for sexual harassment. Michael Avenatti was sentenced to a long prison term for fraud and other crimes. Senator Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) who voted for Trump to be convicted in the Senate is now under indictment for corruption.

Even in the arts, Trump critics have fallen from great heights. Comedian Kathy Griffin has not only become persona non grata after her gory depiction of a beheaded Trump but she is now beseeching people to buy tickets for a languishing come-back tour. Alec Baldwin, who scathingly played Trump, has been criminally charged after shooting a movie crew member.

Of course, it is fair to note that some of Trump’s allies have fared equally badly, including those convicted or facing trial such as Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and others.

Yet, there is no question that time has worked in Trump’s favor in fulfilling certain narratives. He has accused the Democrats of trying to rig elections. While debunking claims in 2020, Democrats like Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold bulldozed any high ground by trying to prevent citizens from voting for Trump as he leads in the polls.

Likewise, Trump long mocked President Joe Biden over his age and mental deterioration. This week, Special Counsel Robert Hur justified his declination of criminal charges against Biden in part due to his “diminished faculties.” He said that his team was concerned that a jury would find him a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Biden then proceeded to hold a press conference to show that he was mentally sharp. It was a disaster. Biden not only came across as a cranky octogenarian telling reporters to get off his lawn, but he proceeded to confuse the presidents of Mexico and Egypt.

Now, 76 percent of Americans are concerned about Biden’s mental fitness to be president.

Even more important was what the report said about Biden’s underlying conduct. Despite false claims by Biden in the press conference, the report found that he had willfully retained classified material, mishandled such material for years and disclosed classified material.

If that sounds familiar, it should. The pictures and allegations are strikingly similar to those involving Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Indeed, the report showed that every element of the crime was evident, which is likely why Hur tried to use Biden’s memory and sympathetic demeanor to justify his decision. Yet, it suggested that a less sympathetic defendant with a better memory would have been charged.

That unsympathetic figure is sitting in Mar-a-Lago facing 37 counts.

Hur tried to distinguish the cases by citing Trump’s failure to cooperate and his efforts to allegedly obstruct the investigation. However, that explains the obstruction counts. The problem are the other counts for retention and mishandling. Some of those charges require a simple showing of gross negligence.  Hur found willful misconduct by Biden, but dismissed similar charges.

For many, the two special counsel investigations have proven, again, a two-tiered legal system. In Florida, Jack Smith went after Trump with an abandon while in Washington Hur showed an avoidance that proved insulting to both the president and the public.

Polls show most Americans believe that the FBI has been politicized.  Even in Georgia, a recent poll found 77 percent believe that politics played a major role (59%) or some role (18%)  in charging Trump.

None of this means that Trump is out of the woods. It is possible that he could scuttle the federal investigation if he is elected or even pardon himself. However, cases in Georgia and New York can still move forward absent legal challenges.  Moreover, he has had a couple of rough weeks including a massive award in a defamation lawsuit and a pending ruling that could bar him from doing business in New York and potentially hundreds of millions in damages.

The biggest concern remains timing. While polls indicate that the public sees a political motive of some of these cases, a majority of voters in swing states also indicate that they would be swayed by a conviction against Trump.

Perhaps for that reason, Smith continues to push courts to allow him to try Trump before the election. However, with a pending appeal over immunity, he may be running out of runway. The Justice Department has long opposed trials within a couple months of an election. A Trump trial would likely go months, making any date after the summer increasingly difficult. If Trump is elected, Smith knows that there may be support to drop the cases from an exhausted public in 2025.

However, at this rate, Trump may be counting less on vindication than attrition.

179 thoughts on “Could Trump Win By Simple Attrition Rather than Vindication?”

  1. Shouldn’t the prosecutor bring charges and then call for an exam by a medical expert to see if Biden is mentally fit to stand trial…

    1. Charges aren’t warranted. Maybe Smith should call for an exam by a medical expert to see if Trump is mentally fit to stand trial. He’s the one claiming that a basic dementia test is “very hard.”

        1. Edwardmahl: “At least he hasn’t spoken to several dead people recently.”

          But he has shaken hands with them.

      2. the report found that he had willfully retained classified material, mishandled such material for years and disclosed classified material.
        Some of those charges require a simple showing of gross negligence. Hur found willful misconduct by Biden, but dismissed similar charges.
        Yes, charges are warranted. The required elements are met.

        Smith is now locked into working inside the precedent set by Hur, and the DoJ. (DoJ means Obama and Mary McCord) All thats left is obstruction of justice

  2. You are irreparably damaging your reputation Jon. Everything and everyone that attaches themselves to Trump eventually is destroyed. Look at the wake of former “loyalists” that he has destroyed. You are currently riding on that train. God Bless you man.

    1. Everything and everyone that attaches themselves to Trump eventually is destroyed.

      You seem to think that anything bad that happens to someone is somehow Trump’s fault. What, those people you mention have no agency of their own? You must especially hate America, which was vastly strengthened under Trump, and just as vastly weakened under Biden. Your TDS is showing.

    2. “jeff”,

      CNN & MSNBC has a long list of hiring failed DNC types. Your track record on this forum speaks to you having the qualifications they seek. OTOH, Harvard University, U Penn and other “institutes of higher learning” (LOL) are likely looking to hire a DEI officer. If you submit your apps therein, let us know and we would be happy to put in a word for you, even if they welcome liars and trolls like you without doing any due diligence.

    3. Professor Turley has not “attached himself” to anything other than solid objective legal analysis. Trump. What exactly are you threatening?

  3. Trump Will Ditch NATO

    Former President Donald Trump again stirred fears about the future of NATO by suggesting he might not come to the aid of European nations if they’re attacked by Russia − and might even “encourage” Russians “to do whatever the hell they want.”

    Trump, during a campaign rally in Conway, South Carolina, on Saturday said his decision, if he’s elected again, would be based on whether NATO members are contributing enough to the foundational alliance. The former president said he made that very point during an international meeting that took place during his presidency.

    Trump’s periodic threats have outraged foreign policy analysts who believe that Trump will destroy NATO if he’s elected to a second term. The former president’s critics say Trump bashes NATO as a sign of support for Russia President Vladimir Putin, another longtime rival of the European military alliance.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/02/11/donald-trump-threatens-nato-russia/72556515007/
    …………………………………………………..

    Who benefits from a collapse of NATO? Not the United States whose global strength depends on rich allies (Germany, UK, France). And if the U.S. abandons NATO, then what about Japan, Taiwan and South Korea? Can ‘they’ still depend on the U.S.?

    The truth is that Trump is essentially telling everyone that he’s a stooge for Putin. There’s no other way to interpret these remarks.

    At this same campaign stop, Trump actually dissed Nikki Haley because her husband is currently serving on a military reservist. In fact, the audience wasn’t quite sure what the punchline was.

    Trump obviously thinks only suckers serve in the military. And only a sucker would think Trump is an appropriate candidate for Commandeer In Chief.

    1. Trump is a stooge of Putin? Can’t you give up that tired smear? If you can’t come up with something better, Trump has nothing to worry about.

    2. NATO was formed as a shield against a threat that no longer exists – the Soviet Union. Why should we bankrupt ourselves and the West generally, all while provoking WWIII through eastward NATO expansion . . . all for no actual gain in security?

      1. Kansas Elder —- Putin wants to recreate the Russian empire AKA USSR. Countries west of Russia clamored to join NATO.

        1. I am of a different view. I think Putin is a Russian nativist who wants to recreate “Mother Russia” which includes Russian culture and language-speaking provinces in Ukraine and Georgia. I have not seen evidence he has empire ambitions beyond that. Specifically, I have not seen evidence he intends to invade other eastern or western European nations. Plus, I think he knows it’s not in his interests to do so.

          2. I’m with you. Do these dominoes theory fanatics really think Russia can successfully conduct a conventional war against NATO? They can’t even march to Kiev. Eastern Europe has been killing fields over the centuries. Why would we ever participate in that militarily or financially

          1. What is the referent of “that” (in “that has nothing to with NATO”)?
            The US invoking Article 5 in response to 9/11 absolutely does have to do with NATO.

      3. NATO was formed to provide mutual protection against ANY enemy (Soviet Union was simply the enemy du jour). NATO’s eastward expansion is the result of Russia’s belligerence, not the cause! I suggest you study Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement policy. How’d that work out for the world? Trump’s Ukraine policy ignores history and shows more cowardice than intelligence.

        1. The comparison to Neville Chamberlain is as superficial and ignorant as it is predictable.

        2. NATO may have been formed for valid reasons, but since the Russian Revolution 30ish ago, it now primarily exists to make a market for the arms makers.

    3. Why is the US in a treaty when other signatories refuse to adhere to their promised actions?
      When Trump was President, the head of NATO informed the world that NATO was never stronger or more affective. He Credited President Trump as the single person responsible for their present condition.

      Trumps no nonsense requirement that the interests of the United States always take the forefront in all negotiations, is on that long list of positives for supporting President Trump.

      1. Putting America’s interests first, and doing so forcefully, is what every president should do, but to the left that’s somehow wrongheaded.

  4. “Trump has a curious fortune in critics who seem over time to combust in rather spectacular fashion.”? Hardly. Look at the individuals mentioned. Almost to the man/woman they are grifters. The main difference between the people mentioned and a good grifter: the good grifter knows when the the jig is up and clears out. The dolts mentioned here overplayed their position. As a result, their collapse was never a question of ‘if’, but only ‘when’.

  5. Is anyone actually excited about Joe Biden’s candidacy? Does he do political rallies, and if so, is there excitement in the air? I haven’t seen any evidence of either one. By contrast, wherever Trump goes – and he does many, many political rallies – he is energetic and the atmosphere is electric with excitement from huge, enthusiastic overflow crowds.

    Part of it is the unethical lawfare being used against Trump – i.e., strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP suits) – and part of it is that Trump speaks the concerns of huge swaths of the American public who are fed up with out-of-control crime, the invasion at the southern border, high gas and grocery prices, being scammed by the green cult, a palpable loss of American power and prestige in the world, and the looming threat of the whole world bursting into a global war due to American weakness. So yeah, we’re pissed, but we love American and want her prior strength to be restored.

    On the other side, the only thing the Dems have is pure, unadulterated hatred – a hatred of Trump that is so all-consuming that it takes precedence over every other goal or value, including the survival of America.

    1. Actually, I am ecstatic about Joe Biden’s candidacy!!!

      There is every reason to believe that the coming election will achieve yet another of the ‘historical’ outcomes so often pointed out during the Biden presidency. This one will be a little different: It will not only be the grand repudiation of con man Joe, the most incompetent person ever to hold the office of POTUS, it will forever mark all of his followers as little more than sycophants or dupes that are willing to sacrifice the country for their own gains.

      Joe Biden has always been a liar, a racist and an incompetent boob that was the product of machine politics. Democrats knew that history and repeatedly rejected his prior candidacies for POTUS. If not for the intervention of Obama, con man Joe would NEVER have been POTUS. Thank you Barack for putting the country through four years of hell and having everyone at each other’s throats.

      1. I think the worst thing Obama ever did, was when failed aeronautical engineer wannabee, Trayvon Martin, got shot while beating Zimmerman’s head into a concrete slab, Obama came out with the “if I had a son, he would look like Trayvon” nonsense. That set race relations back a couple of giant steps. Obama should have said, “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”

  6. The Democrat’s dilemma with the Elephant in the room (The Trump GOP),
    is that they understand that Orange is the new Red, White, and Blue.
    A multiple-conviction will not stop the Trump Train to Victory, it will cement it.
    After seeing what the Dems are doing to RFK Jr. today, and what They had done to Tulsi Gabbard,
    I am all but certain that Hillary is behind the DNC and it is just a matter of weeks until she Pops out of the Cake and onto the Stage.

    Trump has a ‘second-gear’ to put into drive, his Vice President announcement, If it’s Tucker, Vivek, Gabbard, Nome, Lake, or Ivanka …
    the DNC will be left in the dust. There is about ≈8 more months of 2024 Campaigning remaining.

  7. I propose to wait and see what happens. In the fullness of time, all things shall be revealed.

  8. Democrat attrition? Not until the last baby… “burden” is relieved. Rowe, Rowe

    1. Democrat attrition? Not until the last baby… “burden” is relieved. Roe, Roe, Roe your baby… Person of Orange (PoO) down the river Styx is a religious imperative.

  9. It would be interesting to hear JT’s opinion of the theory that Jack Smith was not legally appointed by Garland since he had never been approved by the Senate. Edwin Meese, the former AG, is pushing that theory and it seems to be sound. Assuming it is sound, and accepted by courts, does that mean that all of Smith’s work is null and void, or can Democrats try to preserve the legality of his actions by a post-facto Senate approval of his status? This seems to be a sleeping giant of an issue.

  10. Trump may win due to the numbers of voters just wanting to toss a metaphorical Molotov cocktail over the wall, into the garden.

  11. Turley writes today for the ministry of propaganda FOXNEWS with a deep dive into delusion. But of course Turley gets paid for such BS knowing full well most of his readers live in a reality free zone.

      1. Read or watch what Trump said in South Carolina about NATO and Russia and then you will understand reality.

        1. Explain it to us, Fishy. Help us ‘understand reality.’ LOL
          Put Trump’s comments in their full context, and explain ‘reality’ to us.

    2. Interesting how the trolls have gone from attacking Trump to attacking his followers. I guess they have given up on stopping Trump’s nomination.

      1. Yes, and isn’t that the pot calling a kettle black? Look at the Democrats base – the same people whose kids have to go on the Maury Povich show to find out who their father is, the same people whose kids are in the single-digit category of proficient in English and Math, the same people who shoplift the Walmarts and Walgreens and other stores in their neighborhood out of business, the same people whose14% or so of the population commits about 50% of the crime the same people who ruin every city they settle in large numbers in – that is the Democrat base. It is so bad, that when George Floyd died of his drug overdose, even the people who wanted to Dismantle Racism for the Democrat base, those people came out with, and I kid you not, this was how they wanted to help blacks – pledged to hire more people with criminal records. I know this because my bank, the largest in the country, sent me a message saying so! They intended to help black people, the Democrat base, by pledging to hire several thousand more people despite their criminal record.

  12. Trump is “…prevailing politically in a curious war of attrition.”

    – Professor Turley
    ____________________

    Some believe it to be an unconstitutional war over fundamental and statutory law, and antithetical illicit political persecution, and abject corruption, aka lawfare.

    All previous presidents were provided pervasive unassailable immunity without question.

    The communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs) are terrified of losing their “dictatorship of the proletariat” which totally violates, subverts, voids, and nullifies the Constitution.

    The communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs) are terrified of America reverting to the Constitution (imagine that) and extirpating the principles of communism in America.

  13. I think John Say’s comment is one of the must lucid and accurate comments on this blog in some time. Well summarized. J6 was the most politicized riot in recent history while literally thousands on the left were left to run amok, got arrested, released without bail to go amok some more and then had all their charges dropped.
    That alone screams 2 tier justice.

    1. “An Associated Press review of court documents in more than 300 federal cases stemming from the protests sparked by George Floyd’s death last year shows that dozens of people charged have been convicted of serious crimes and sent to prison. The AP found that more than 120 defendants across the United States have pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial of federal crimes including rioting, arson and conspiracy. More than 70 defendants who’ve been sentenced so far have gotten an average of about 27 months behind bars. At least 10 received prison terms of five years or more.”
      “https://apnews.com/article/records-rebut-claims-jan-6-rioters-55adf4d46aff57b91af2fdd3345dace8”

      That was out of 300 cases they looked at. Over 10,000 were arrested (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/02/22/fact-check-thousands-black-lives-matter-protesters-arrested-2020/6816074001/), so there’s no reason to think that the 120 out of 300 account for all of the convictions/guilty pleas.

  14. It seems a team of angels is guarding Trump. I hope so. He has many demons after him and the angels need to be alert–and successful. They are guarding the fate of the country.

  15. Prof. Turley, I would suggest that Trump is not lucky.

    Trump’s political fortunes have risen as the lawfare against him has increased.
    It is reaonable to beleive if Democrats had left Trump alone, Biden would be ahead in the polls.
    Not only is this lawfare boosting Trump, but it is hurting Biden AND democrats.

    Democrats have very successfully and stupidly made Trump into a Martyr.
    This is not luck on Trump’s part – this is failure on the part of his enemies.

    You still see J6 as a violent and shocking attack on democracy,
    I and large portions of the country see it as efforts to ensure that only the left is ever allowed to protest politically.

    Decades of experience teach us that protests on the left often turn violent – sometimes very very violent.
    We decry that violence, but we do not even dream to entertain the possibility that the left can not protest, or that law enforcement should target the left as domestic terrorists.

    Yet the lesson of J6 to much of the country is that anything short of perfection in political protest by those on the right will result in demonization, and the weaponization of govenrment against them.

    Trump MIGHT have been less of a martyr had democrats confined their weaponization of the justice systme to Trump and maybe those close to him – though the dual system is transparent to most.
    But by SWATTING pro-life protestors, and catholics, and people protesting at school boards, by spying on people buying from Dick’s or Cabella’s or buying bibles, by censoring books on amazon, by going out of their way to make govenrment hostile to ordinary people whose political views are at odds with the current administration, democrats have assured that odinary peopple will see Trump as a Martyr and as their champion.

    Voters do not need to have been spyed on by the FBI or investigated over J6 to be fearful because democrats have targeted them over political differences.

    Anyone who has thought of speaking out at a school board meeting is likely to support Trump.

    Christ said “he who is without sin, cast the first stone”

    Trump gores alot of sacred cows, but it is those that start throwing stones at him that are exposed as living in glass houses.

    Trump infamously campaigned on “lock her up, lock her up” – and yet Trump confined his jabs at clinton to rhetoric as president, even as it became evident that the gigantic hoax that nearly capsized his presidency came from Clinton personally.

    We have credible NYT and WaPo stories of Biden ranting in the WhiteHouse “Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?”
    While similar claims regarding Trump have been debunked.

    I found the Whitehouse counsel press conference defending Biden most instructive – and very useful for Trump.

    The SC claimed that presidents and ex-presidents handle classified documents this way all the time – using examples of Reagan and Clinton – both of whom had and likely shared classified information as ex-presidents. I do not know if the WC mentioned Churchill, and UK law and US law are different but Churchill PUBLISHED classified information in his books.

    What the WH counsel FAILED to note is that his examples were all presidents and ex-presidents.
    They were NOT secretaries of state, FBI directors, or vice presidents.

    The american people are not stupid, they may not understand the nuances of the law and constitution.
    They may not know the sharp edges of the distinctions.

    But they DO understand that presidents and ex-presidents must be different under the law and constitution.

    I am concerned that the SCOTUS ballot access case will restrict itself to the president – as Justice Jackson seemed to forcefully lead that argument.
    While I think that argument is correct – SCOTUS needs a response that is bigger than The 14th amendment does not apply to presidents.
    They need to take a stand against the lawfare weaponization of politics.

  16. Nice column. I disagree that “claims of election fraud in 2020 have been debunked.” They mostly weren’t addressed. You would think that someone of professor Turley’s acumen would by now at least be asking the question if the most corrupt, lying, cheating administration in American history might not have also cheated in 2020, but apparently not. I guess it’s hard to admit you were wrong on such an immense, and ultimately catastrophic, scale.

    1. They were addressed. Not only did states do independent audits, but the company that Trump hired to look into it did not find outcome-altering fraud (there’s some voter fraud, as has occurred for a long time, but the question is whether it was widespread; it was not). Some lawsuits reached the merits and also found that there was no outcome-altering fraud.

    2. Turley still falls victim to the buying into left wingnut shoot from the hip rhetoric.

      Claims that Trump did not collude with Russia – were allegedly debunked.
      Claims that Biden was corrupt were allegedly debunked.

      I keep hearing about so called right wing taylor swift conspiracy theories. But everything I hear about them comes from the left.

      Is it possible that some on the right are concerned that Taylor Swift might endorse Biden ? There must be someone somewhere on the right who has said something. But I have not heard it.

      Lefties hear accuse me of being some Trumpist – if that were true, why is it that all the purported right wing conspiracy theories I know of fallinto one of two catagories:

      Proven true – such as the collusion delusion, Hunter’s laptop, Biden corruption,
      or things I hear about FROM THE LEFT.

      If there is some right wing conspiracy theory and I am the alleged Trump sycophant I get accused of why didn;t I learn of these right wing conspiracy theories in my daily “Der Strumer” feed ?

      Regardless, “Debunked” actually means something. The Bentham numbers proof of election fraud has been debunked. That is the ONLY statistical evidence of 2020 election fraud that I am aware of has actually been debunked.
      There is a massive amount of incredibly improbable highly local voting trends in 2020 that have never been explained much less debunked.

      We have instances of adjacent counties with near identical republican/democrat registration and past voting patterns and near identical demographies that trended in 2020 in the opposite direction. These anomalies all surround the 6 swing state big cities where Zuckerberg dumped 450M dollars into taking over election administration. When two counties with similar political and demographic makeup shift in opposite directions between 2016 or 2018 and 2020 and the independent variable is the money bomb and local election administration takeover as a result of zuckerbucks – that is highly suspicious and warrants investigation.

      While this and many many many similar things are not PROOF of fraud, they are ABSOLUTE proof that claims of fraud have NOT been debunked.

      1. The Left has never even tried to “debunk” the dozens of sworn testimonies as to election workers in blue cities putting cardboard over windows into counting rooms and preventing any conservative “poll watcher” from getting close enough to the counting tables and machines to see what was going on. The mystery 2:00 am suspensions of counting were never explained either. And contrary to the claim earlier in this string, NONE of the 60 odd cases that were filed ever received a trial on the merits. None.

        1. “For this Report, we examined every count of every [post-election] case brought in these six battleground states. We include both a narrative for each state and an accompanying Addendum listing each case and its disposition. … Of the 64 cases brought by Trump and his supporters, twenty were dismissed before a hearing on the merits, fourteen were voluntarily dismissed by Trump and his supporters before a hearing on the merits, and 30 cases included a hearing on the merits. Only in one Pennsylvania case involving far too few votes to overturn the results did Trump and his supporters prevail.”
          from p. 3 of “Lost, Not Stolen: The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election”
          You can dowload the entire report here: https://lostnotstolen.org/

  17. It’s no coincidence that the cases against Trump are imploding. The Dems stretched lawfare beyond credible limits. Even the Jean Carroll case was full holes like Swiss cheese. Let alone the j6 conspiracy claims. But the Repubs have yet to effectively turn the public against the Dems. The RNC (among others) needs a wake-up call.

    1. Biden asks reporters who doubt his competence, “How did I get so much done and passed in Congress?”
      Answer is Mitch McConnell and the Uniparty working hard to help Biden and Democrat pass their agenda at every turn.
      And those same “Republicans” worked equally hard to thwart Trump’s policy agenda every step of the way.

      1. Example:
        BREAKING: 18 Republicans, along with Democrats, have just propelled the Senate forward in advancing a $95 billion aid package for Israel, Ukraine, and allies, with a 67-27 vote, overcoming a procedural hurdle and inching closer to passage. It’s so important they worked on Super Bowl Sunday.

        Military Industrial Complex wins again!

        1. you do realize that progress is the result of removing BORDER provisions from the bill, which is where it should have started in the first place

          1. That’s because the Republicans didn’t want to vote for the border provisions, despite getting most of what they wanted, all because Trump wants to be able to run on the border.

  18. Trump last night, describing an exchange that he had with a NATO member: “One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, ‘Well sir, if we don’t pay and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’ I said, ‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’ He said, ‘Yes, let’s say that happened.’ No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.”

    To be clear: every NATO country is contributing to NATO. No country owes money to the US.

    Encouraging Russia to do whatever the hell it wants to NATO allies is unheard of and dangerous. Trump is a sick man and a terrible ally.

    The WH: “Encouraging invasions of our closest allies by murderous regimes is appalling and unhinged – and it endangers American national security, global stability, and our economy at home.”

    NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg: “Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the US, and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk.”

    NYT: “John Bolton … wrote in his memoir that Mr. Trump had to be repeatedly talked out of withdrawing from NATO. In an interview, Mr. Bolton said ‘there is no doubt in my mind’ that in a second term, Mr. Trump would withdraw the United States from NATO.”

    The first part of Trump’s story — the part about the President of a country asking “sir …” — is probably just another of Trump’s made-up “sir” stories, meant to bolster his own ego and frame his response. But the response echoes what he’s said elsewhere:
    “‘You need to understand that if Europe is under attack, we will never come to help you and to support you,’ Trump told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in 2020, according to French European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who was also present at a meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos. ‘By the way, NATO is dead, and we will leave, we will quit NATO,’ Trump also said, according to Breton. ‘And he added, ‘and by the way, you owe me $400 billion, because you didn’t pay, you Germans, what you had to pay for defense,” Breton said about the tense meeting, where the EU’s then-trade chief Phil Hogan was also present.” (https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-vow-never-help-europe-attack-thierry-breton/)

    Thankfully, “Congress has approved legislation that would prevent any president from withdrawing the United States from NATO without approval from the Senate or an Act of Congress. …”
    https://thehill.com/homenews/4360407-congress-approves-bill-barring-president-withdrawing-nato/

    Any patriotic American should work to defeat Trump at the polls.

    1. La la la – Trump routinely sticks his foot in his mouth and the Dems then jerry-rig some story about how the world will fall apart if he is elected. The truth of the matter is that Trump’s actions did in the past make and will in the future make the world a safer and better place.

        1. You can tell by the La la la comment like all Trump supporters facts and evidence does not matter.

    2. If Russia is not threatening any members of NATO, what is the reason for its continued existence? In his interview with Tucker Carlson, Putin said he raised with Bill Clinton the possibility of Russia joining NATO. He said that Clinton turned him down. Treating Russia as an existential threat to Europe may be self-fulfilling. Trump has some grasp of this possibility. His critics are quite clueless – Russia is an enemy of the USA and as always will be.

      1. If Russia isn’t threatening the US, why do we still have nuclear weapons? Has it occurred to you that in neither case is the potential threat limited to Russia, nor does the lack of a current threat imply that there will never be a threat?

      2. Edwardmahl,
        The MIC and the DoD always needs an enemy to justify their budgets and to their stockholders.
        After the Soviet Union collapsed, why did we need NATO?

    3. To be clear: every NATO country is contributing to NATO. No country owes money to the US.
      What does one have to do with the other.

      You talk jibberish, instead of facts

      7 of 31 countries fail to meet their Treaty obligations. Treaties need to be honored or abandoned.

      1. It’s a guideline, not an obligation and not party of the NATO treaty. This idea of “You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?” is nonsense. Each of the countries is expending money on their national defense, and if you look at their national security expenditures in toto, the expenditures are even higher. A brief that discusses why both expenditures are relevant to NATO’s goals: https://www.csis.org/analysis/burden-sharing-responsibility-sharing

          1. Not part of the treaty. Not required by the treaty. I take it you’ve never read the NATO treaty. You do know that it’s a written treaty that you could look up, right?

    4. “Any patriotic American should work to defeat Trump at the polls.”

      Right. Because to be “patriotic” means to be stiffed. To ignore that fact. Then to clean up the mess of the country that stiffed you.

      The Left and its global leeches treat Americans as chumps. Trump says: Not on my watch!

      That is why truly patriotic Americans support him.

  19. Now, lets watch and see how much lipstick and powder the Dennis et als can put on this posting by the Prof. The Dems continue to bloviate and lie from the bovine fecal matter platform which former Great Pres RR indicated. A large pile of dung. Come Nov 2024 DT will be elected and the great dystopian chaos will begin. Un-Civil WII will begin. I will allege there will be at least an attempted assassination attempt on DT if he continues to gain in the polls. J Biden will not be a candidate as of Nov election date. Selah

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