Trump Ducks the GOP Debate He thinks Republicans will nominate him for a third time without a real contest.
Donald Trump’s decision to skip Wednesday’s presidential debate shows that he wants to avoid having to tussle with competitors who might criticize him. The more interesting question is how Republican voters will respond to the former President’s evident presumption that he owns their allegiance.
Instead of debating, Mr. Trump says he will commune somewhere with Tucker Carlson. The former Fox News host will be on hand less as an interviewer than to endorse the former President’s claims that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is America’s fault and that the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot was merely a case of exuberant supporters getting slightly carried away.
Mr. Trump clearly think he has the nomination all but wrapped up, and judging by the current polls he has reason to think so. But what a message he is sending about the loyalty he thinks GOP voters owe him.
It would mean the Grand Old Party is going to nominate, for the third time, a man who has been indicted four times on 91 felony counts. We don’t mean despite being indicted. We mean because he’s been indicted.
In order to spite the Democrats for their partisan prosecutions, GOP voters would be doing exactly what Democrats and the press corps want them to do. Democrats want Republicans to nominate the man who has shown over the last three national elections that he is the greatest voter turnout machine for the Democratic Party since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Republican voters often say they like that Mr. Trump is a fighter, but for whom is he fighting? Them, or himself? He would carry into the general election more baggage than the British royals. Yet Mr. Trump expects GOP voters to nominate him without so much as a primary debate, much less a real nominating contest.
There are still five months before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, and perhaps Mr. Trump’s presumption is mistaken. But political parties have made repeated nominations in the past in thrall to one man and suffered repeated losses for it. Democrats did it three times with William Jennings Bryan in 1896, 1900 and 1908, and Republicans are tempting the same fate.
Comments are closed.
