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August 04, 2023 12:03 PM UTC

Trump Legal Strategy is Bad News for Republicans Everywhere

  • 13 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Recent polling from Monmouth suggests that roughly 30% of Americans still believe that the 2020 Presidential Election was fraudulent in some manner. You can probably guess the political makeup of that 30% (it’s all MAGA, baby!) On the flip side, almost 60% of Americans believe that Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump fair and square in 2020. As NBC News noted in late June, these numbers haven’t changed much since a poll conducted by Monmouth in November 2020.

The point here is that “2020 election fraud” is a narrative that is only interesting to the right-wing MAGA base. This is just one of many reasons that Republicans everywhere are nervous about the Trump legal strategy for overcoming his latest indictment related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election ( a case that historians say could be the most important in modern American history). As The Washington Post reports today:

Former president Donald Trump and some of his legal advisers see an upside to the latest criminal case against him: He can use his upcoming trial to further argue his false claims of a stolen 2020 election.

The looming courtroom showdown is poised to push his insistence that election fraud occurred in 2020 toward the center of the 2024 presidential campaign, a dismaying prospect for Republicans and some of Trump’s advisers who have urged him to stop belaboring that subject. Trump’s defense team has signaled that they’ll focus on rebutting prosecutors’ allegations that Trump knew his fraud claims were false…

…But the prospect of revisiting the validity of the last election has delighted Democrats, on top of causing consternation among Republican strategists, who see other, much more politically fruitful focal points for 2024. There are mountains of evidence — provided by top leaders in his campaign and government — that the election was not stolen from Trump, and the indictment paints a damning portrait of a man who was frequently informed of that reality. [Pols emphasis]

We’ve seen Republicans such as Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-ifle) making the argument that Trump’s latest indictment is actually a good thing for the Big Orange Guy because it allows him to potentially “uncover” some “proof” that the 2020 election was rigged against him. Perhaps the hope is that Trump can someday be retroactively named President, or something.

[mantra-pullquote align=”right” textalign=”left” width=”60%”]“If this is the conversation we’re going to have over the next year and a half, it’s going to be tough for Republicans, particularly in suburban areas.”

— Michael Duncan, Republican consultant aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.[/mantra-pullquote]

Yet these aren’t just the talking points of loyal Trump soldiers. Trump’s attorneys are going to have to go this route because their best chance at defending the former President involves their ability to prove that Trump really did think that he won the 2020 election. Back to to WaPo:

“We will re-litigate every single issue in the 2020 election in the context of this litigation,” Trump attorney John Lauro said Tuesday during an interview with Fox News. “It gives President Trump an opportunity that he has never had before, which is to have subpoena power since Jan. 6 in a way that can be exercised in federal court.”

Leaders in both parties agree that revisiting those topics hurt the GOP among moderates and swing voters in last year’s midterms and could continue to sandbag Trump and the rest of the ticket. [Pols emphasis]

Does Boebert understand this? If she did, would she care? These are probably questions without answers, but we know that she told Grant Stinchfield on his “Diet Fox News” show this week that voters across the country — and in her district — are laser-focused on the 2020 election:

“I go all throughout the United States, all throughout my district here in Colorado, where I am right now,” said Boebert. “And the number one thing that I still hear is ‘We need secure, fair elections.'”

Boebert said this to a MAGA audience, but we know from recent polling data that it just isn’t true in CO-03. Here’s what actual voters in Boebert’s district listed as their top issues in April 2023:

Via “The Rocky Mountaineer” (April 2023)

It is certainly possible that Boebert constituents occasionally ask her about election fraud, but there is no reality in which this issue is “the number one thing” that Boebert hears about on the campaign trail. To the extent that voters are bringing it up with elected officials anywhere, it’s a safe bet that these are largely conversations between MAGA supporters and MAGA politicians.

None of this makes any strategic sense for Republicans hoping for better results in 2024, but the GOP is still following Trump’s lead…and Trump is primarily concerned with keeping his ass out of prison and never admitting that he did, in fact, lose an election in 2020.

Voters are generally more interested in hearing what candidates are proposing for the future, as opposed to listening to their gripes about the recent past. If Republicans make 2024 about 2020, Democrats will be more than happy to let them talk.

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13 thoughts on “Trump Legal Strategy is Bad News for Republicans Everywhere”

  2. You Dems shouldn't get distracted with all the hoopla and hysteria surrounding Trump. There is still a big job ahead of selling the benefits of Biden-nomics.

    1. "You Dems shouldn't get distracted with… Trump." is bad advice. He's the leading presidential candidate for the GOP and THE person who directs the talking points used by the Republican Party. Trump IS the Republican Party because he says so and Republicans don't have enough bravery to tell him off.

    2. I don’t think CHB’s advice is bad. I’d say there is some percentage chance stuff gets so bad for TFG that he just can’t continue, even considering whatever delusion and ego will obviously be part of the decisions. I don’t know the percentage chance, but I’ll start by maintaining it’s not zero. For that reason, I’d certainly recommend against putting all the Dem eggs in the basket of assuming TFG’s embarrassing escapades will be the only political factor in Oct/Nov 2024.

      1. I seem to recall that the last time someone ran against Trump with the sole message being "I'm not Donald Trump" was in 2016. We saw how that worked out.

        Biden ran a more pro-active campaign telling people why they should vote for him. That, combined with the "butcher's bill" from the "China virus hoax" approaching 1,000,000 dead Americans and the lack of a third-party spoiler in the race allowed Biden to win both the popular vote and the electoral vote.

        CHB is correct. Biden needs to have a message beyond "I'm not Donald Trump."

    3. Benefits of Bidenomics:

       * over 13 million jobs created while Biden was President

       * lowest unemployment rate since I've been in the workforce:  3.5% was this month's report.

       * wage gains on aggregate are now above the rate of inflation.  And the folks in the bottom half of the economic ladder are leading the way.

       * major investments in manufacturing capacity — FAR beyond the previous 3 Administrations.

      And there's more:  VOX: Can Joe Biden convince Americans the economy is actually good?

    4. CHB, it looks like your advice is already being put into action. 

      Last week’s indictment of Donald Trump brought home the urgency of transforming our nation’s public life. Special counsel Jack Smith lived up to his responsibility by holding the former president accountable for his crimes against democracy. Only politicians can break the grip of Trump’s politics of resentment.

      This has long been one of President Biden’s central goals, but his Democratic colleagues at the state and local levels might have the best shot at moving their fellow citizens away from cultural, racial and religious divisions and toward the (often literally) concrete ground of jobs and building things. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro ranks as one of the most determined and, so far, successful practitioners of this new politics of addition.

      “I went to counties the Democrats had written off a long time ago and spoke about workforce development and spoke about how we're going to bring back the economy and talked about it in very tangible, practical ways.”

  3. Bidenomics has resulted in millions of jobs created, including manufacturing jobs.  He’s also brought inflation under control while the economy continues to expand.  In contrast to the GOP that constantly threatens to wreck the economy with shutdowns and defaults, pursuing sham investigations, promoting dangerous foreign policy to appease Russia, and roll back the rights and freedoms of most Americans.  And don’t get me started on their obstinate work to prevent mitigating and reversing the climate and environmental crisis.

    This was a reply to CHB. For some reason I can only add a comment from my iPad, but it won’t let me reply to anyone else’s comment.

    1. Agree. The Trump train wreck has completely distracted everyone from the fact that Biden is doing a great job on the economy. Quiet competence doesn't get a lot of looks, and that is OK. Lots of non Magats will have a choice in 2024 between complete and utter chaos and risking the life of our democracy, or a steady hand at the wheel. 

  4. I'm not certain this is Trump's "Legal Strategy," but it does seem like it will be "bad news" for Republicans. @realDonaldTrump posted

    "IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I'M COMING AFTER YOU."

    As for the legal strategy, AP explained the response::

    The Justice Department has asked a federal judge overseeing the criminal case against former President Donald Trump in Washington to step in after he released a post online that appeared to promise revenge on anyone who goes after him.

    Prosecutors on Friday requested that U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan issue a protective order concerning evidence in the case, a day after Trump pleaded not guilty to charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss and block the peaceful transition of power. The order, different from a “gag order,” would limit what information Trump and his legal team could share publicly

    Judge gave Trump's lawyer until 5 pm Monday to respond. The defense team asked for more time, and the judge rejected that request.

    1. Here’s the wiki on the judge. If The Yam’s not worried, he ought to be.          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanya_S._Chutkan

      Here are a couple of snippets:

      On November 9, 2021, Chutkan denied former President Donald Trump‘s plea to keep records from being released to the House Select Committee investigating the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.[37][38] The D.C. Circuit affirmed that decision, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined review.[39]

      Chutkan has overseen the trials of more than 30 defendants in cases related to the January 6 Capitol attack. According to The Washington Post, she has been the toughest sentencing judge in those cases, ordering at least some jail or prison time in all cases, and sometimes exceeding the sentence recommended by prosecutors.[40]

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