2024 GOP Presidential Race (3 Viewers)

[SteveSBrickNJ]

Many of Trump's endorsed candidates did not do well on Nov. 8th.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis DID do well.
He won convincingly.
Yet in this OP's opinion, Donald Trump is an egomaniac who is seemingly incapable of putting "Party over Self"
Trump has ZERO chance of being elected our next president.
In my opinion, if Trump would just shut up and go away (fat chance of that)...but "if" Trump did that, Gov. Ron DeSantis would have a CHANCE to be a formidable candidate for President in 2024.
Here is an interesting article on this topic...

Donald Trump warns Ron DeSantis against 2024 presidential bid as Republican rising star wins big

Donald Trump has warned Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis against running for president in 2024, saying doing so would harm the Republican Party.

www.scotsman.com

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What do any of you think re. Trump vs DeSantis?

 

[Optimus Prime]

 

[Huntn]

My gawd a woke mom (snake hiss) is going to destroy our greatness!! Yeah, I’ve always thought being awake and aware our our past was pretty heinous. Better to keep the skeletons all locked up, and get minorities back in their rightful place as White Pride marches on.

 

[SFIDC3]

in 'normal' politics absolutely

But this isn't a normadl situation

It's not even just Trump's current and future charges

Trump put a target on Pence's back for a violent and unruly mob, and who's response to being told the crowd was chanting "Hang Mike Pence" (while only a few dozen yards from where he was) was basically "Oh well, he should have done what I told him to"

There should be a line that when crossed falling in line isn't an option, and if Trump putting himself and his family in very real mortal danger isn't that line for Pence what is?

Dude, I've been saying this since shortly after the insurrection....Pence is the first to knowingly put Party over Family......his behavior goes way beyond the pale....a spineless, pitiful man.....

 

[Optimus Prime]

MSN

 

[SystemShock]

And this is why Pence is unfit to be POTUS:

Shades of Ted Cruz, after Trump insulted him and his wife, seen manning phones, cold calling people asking them to support Trump. Forget about decency, have some balls and some self respect.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Donald Trump is not the most rightwing candidate running for the White House. That is a statement few would have thought possible after the former president’s brand of nativist-populism reshaped the Republican party’

But as the Republican primary election for 2024 gathers pace, Trump finds himself eclipsed on the right by Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, who is betting that the party’s voters are spoiling for an even more extreme agenda.

From Covid to crime, from immigration to cultural issues, DeSantis is staking out territory that leaves the 76-year-old frontrunner fending off a once unthinkable criticism: he might be a bit too liberal.

“DeSantis’s strategy for now is that he is going to try to outflank Trump to the right and there’s opportunity there,” said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution thinktank at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. “He can go after Trump’s record as president on spending. He can go after Trump on refusing to address entitlement reform, which Republicans seemed to abandon writ large.”

This week, Trump was indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. DeSantis did not attempt to capitalise but rather condemned the “weaponization of federal law enforcement”. He has been dubbed a “mini-Trump” who seeks to emulate the former president. But in his first 10 days on the campaign trail, DeSantis has assailed Trump from the right.

He told a conservative radio host “this is a different guy than 2015, 2016,” before deriding bipartisan criminal justice reform legislation that Trump championed as “basically a jailbreak bill” letting dangerous people out of prison.

On immigration, DeSantis has played to the base by flying migrants from Florida to Massachusetts and California while arguing that Trump “endorsed and tried to ram” an “amnesty” billthrough Congress. The governor even claimed Trump’s signature issue for himself by asserting that he would finish building a wall on the US-Mexico border.

DeSantis can point to a hard-right record in Florida and suggest that he gets the job done in contrast to Trump’s unfulfilled promises at the White House. He has accused Trump of “turning the reins over” to Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, during the Covid pandemic while he says he kept Florida open for business. “We chose freedom over Faucism,” DeSantis told voters last week.

Whalen, who served as a speechwriter for the Bush-Quayle re-election campaign, said: “What DeSantis is going to attack him on is that Donald Trump turned loose Anthony Fauci. Trump at no point fired anybody. Trump let Fauci drive children’s healthcare policy. If Trump wants to engage with this on a conversation over who handled Covid better, boy, if I’m Ron DeSantis, bring it on.”

Extraordinarily, Trump finds himself on the defensive over what many neutral observers and critics regard as one his few positive achievements: the development of coronavirus vaccines in less than a year.

Campaigning in Grimes, Iowa, he received a pointed question from a woman who claimed that “we have lost people because you supported the jab,” a reference to conspiracy theories about mRNA vaccines, which have been credited with saving millions of lives.

While Trump did not dismiss her suggestion – and stressed that he was never in favour of mandates – he explained that “there’s a big portion of the country that thinks that was a great thing, you understand that. Not a lot of the people in this room, but there is a big portion.”…….

Republican red meat: Ron DeSantis bids to outflank Trump on the right

From Covid to crime, from immigration to cultural issues, the Florida governor is aiming to paint Trump as too liberal

www.theguardian.com

 

[superchuck500]

MSN

Seems presidential

/s

 

[SteveSBrickNJ]

NOT a BIG story, but relevant to this thread...
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DeSantis gets Oklahoma governor's endorsement at Tulsa appearance

Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt endorsed his Florida counterpart, Gov.

www.yahoo.com

 

[SteveSBrickNJ]

Another GOP 2024 Story....
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Scott rolls out dozens of South Carolina lawmakers and local leaders endorsing his presidential bid

Sen. Tim Scott is rolling out endorsements from more than 140 current and former elected officials from his home state of South Carolina, aiming to make a show of force in the first-in-the-South presidential primary state. The backing comes as Scott and other presidential contenders aim to...

www.yahoo.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Don’t look now, but 2024 Republicans who have been exceedingly loath to criticize Donald Trump for his classified documents indictment appear to be easing their way toward doing so.


Slowly and very cautiously, of course.


The GOP’s reaction to the indictment has generally been to focus more upon the supposed double standard in the justice system and the purported “weaponization” of the government, while avoiding addressing the merits of the case against Trump (even to defend him). But the merits have begun to seep into their commentary.

On Monday afternoon, both Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley went further than they had before in suggesting that maybe Trump actually did something wrong.

Scott called it a “serious case with serious allegations,” while Haley later said on Fox News, “If this indictment is true, if what it says is actually the case, President Trump was incredibly reckless with our national security.”


Both layered their commentary with allusions to the idea that the process was unfair. Scott cited the idea that the justice system was “targeting and hunting Republicans.” Haley also took care to argue that, “The DOJ and FBI have lost all credibility with the American people.”


“Two things can be true at the same time,” Haley prefaced her comments by saying.


But to this point, among well-known 2024 hopefuls, only Trump critics former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (“devastating”) and former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson (calling for Trump to drop out) have gone further.

Still, others have seemingly left the door ajar to going after Trump’s actions more directly — at some point.


Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) also criticized the process over the weekend, but on Friday he said that if he had taken classified documents while serving in the military, “I would have been court-martialed in a New York minute.”

Former vice president Mike Pence has also tacitly conceded that it’s possible the evidence is just that significant, saying before the indictment that, “I don’t know the facts of the former president’s case.” He has also repeatedly emphasized that “No one is above the law” — the unstated implication being that this includes Trump.

None of it is the kind of full-throated denunciation we saw from Republicans in the case of Hillary Clinton and her private email server back in 2016.

Back then, for instance, Scott said that Clinton had “put our national security and classified information at risk.” DeSantis said that Clinton “put her own interests before her duties to the law and national security.”…….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/12/2024-gopers-start-hitting-trump-gently-classified-documents/

 

[SteveSBrickNJ]

Like a slow drip, the number of prominent Republicans coming out against Trump is growing.
There's still a long way to go, but here is an article re. this....
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'He's toast': Growing number of Republicans criticize Trump over documents indictment

They are still a distinct minority of their party, but a growing number of Republicans have stepped forward to offer criticism of former President Donald Trump following the unsealing of the Justice Department's indictment relating to his refusal to hand over classified documents after leaving...

news.yahoo.com

 

[superchuck500]

 

[superchuck500]

Like a slow drip, the number of prominent Republicans coming out against Trump is growing.
There's still a long way to go, but here is an article re. this....
*

'He's toast': Growing number of Republicans criticize Trump over documents indictment

They are still a distinct minority of their party, but a growing number of Republicans have stepped forward to offer criticism of former President Donald Trump following the unsealing of the Justice Department's indictment relating to his refusal to hand over classified documents after leaving...

news.yahoo.com

He’s DOA in the general election and the sooner they all admit it, they better they will be.

Trump has won one election. He has lost one election, the second one. A good politician can often come back from losing first to win later, but going from winning to then losing is damaged goods.

Trump has been impeached twice. He has been arrested twice and he has been charged with 37 federal felonies and 34 state felonies.

Apart from the crimes and the chaos, he was just a terrible human being as president. He was awkward and unpolished with world leaders. He was embarrassingly unempathetic about everything. His executive branch was a dumpster fire and he chose dysfunction in the name of his worldview over function in the name of function. This is not an appealing record.

But MAGAs are all like “he’s easily gonna win in 2024 and this will all be over!” There is no way he’s going to win. I know people who voted for him in 2016, some with enthusiasm. They are so disgusted with him there’s just no way they would vote for him to he president again. They didn’t vote for him in 2020 and they most certainly aren’t going to change and vote for him in 2024. The ranks of “no way” have only grown.

Only the true believers and committed conservatives find him appealing in any way. The rest of the electorate is so done with him, he’s a non-starter.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Apart from the crimes and the chaos, he was just a terrible human being as president. He was awkward and unpolished with world leaders. He was embarrassingly unempathetic about everything. His executive branch was a dumpster fire and he chose dysfunction in the name of his worldview over function in the name of function. This is not an appealing record.

True, but the fact that 8 million more voted for him in 2020 has me a bit nervous

 

[SFIDC3]

He’s DOA in the general election and the sooner they all admit it, they better they will be.

Trump has won one election. He has lost one election, the second one. A good politician can often come back from losing first to win later, but going from winning to then losing is damaged goods.

Trump has been impeached twice. He has been arrested twice and he has been charged with 37 federal felonies and 34 state felonies.

Apart from the crimes and the chaos, he was just a terrible human being as president. He was awkward and unpolished with world leaders. He was embarrassingly unempathetic about everything. His executive branch was a dumpster fire and he chose dysfunction in the name of his worldview over function in the name of function. This is not an appealing record.

But MAGAs are all like “he’s easily gonna win in 2024 and this will all be over!” There is no way he’s going to win. I know people who voted for him in 2016, some with enthusiasm. They are so disgusted with him there’s just no way they would vote for him to he president again. They didn’t vote for him in 2020 and they most certainly aren’t going to change and vote for him in 2024. The ranks of “no way” have only grown.

Only the true believers and committed conservatives find him appealing in any way. The rest of the electorate is so done with him, he’s a non-starter.

I hope they never admit it, and I hope the trial is delayed enough for Trump to lose in a landslide, then shortly after he gets jail time (whatever that turns out to be).....that would be the ultimate karmic response to what the R's and Trump have sewn......

But I agree, eventually I think the McConnell's of the R party and some of the other scheming lowlifes that aren't as stupid as his cultish followers will find a way to out him....

Something I was hoping would happen much sooner so Trump could run as an I or his own party and completely destroy the R party.....

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

True, but the fact that 8 million more voted for him in 2020 has me a bit nervous

He should lose at least half that number and inspire even more to vote against him than for him. Hell, his 2016 win was only by less that 80K votes across 3 states. By that measure he was blasted in 2020 and he has done nothing to improve his '24 chances, neither has his party. The GOP is catering to the unwavering 30% while attacking the rest, especially women and they will continue to pay the price at the polls.

 

[SteveSBrickNJ]

He’s DOA in the general election and the sooner they all admit it, they better they will be.

Trump has won one election. He has lost one election, the second one. A good politician can often come back from losing first to win later, but going from winning to then losing is damaged goods.

Trump has been impeached twice. He has been arrested twice and he has been charged with 37 federal felonies and 34 state felonies.

Apart from the crimes and the chaos, he was just a terrible human being as president. He was awkward and unpolished with world leaders. He was embarrassingly unempathetic about everything. His executive branch was a dumpster fire and he chose dysfunction in the name of his worldview over function in the name of function. This is not an appealing record.

But MAGAs are all like “he’s easily gonna win in 2024 and this will all be over!” There is no way he’s going to win. I know people who voted for him in 2016, some with enthusiasm. They are so disgusted with him there’s just no way they would vote for him to he president again. They didn’t vote for him in 2020 and they most certainly aren’t going to change and vote for him in 2024. The ranks of “no way” have only grown.

Only the true believers and committed conservatives find him appealing in any way. The rest of the electorate is so done with him, he’s a non-starter.

Your post was composed in such a way it could have been my words.
We agree 100%.

 

[Optimus Prime]

from Chris Sununu

He keeps saying that he opposes Trump, Trump should not be the nominee, he will do what he can to stop Trump from being the nominee, and if Trump is the nominee he will loss

But for some reason though he refuses to say that he would not support or vote for Trump if he is

Bill Maher asked him repeatedly and Sununu was steadfast in his belief that there's no way Trump will be the nominee so it's a moot point

I don't why it's so hard to say he won't vote for him after saying all this
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I will not be seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024.

Our party is on a collision course toward electoral irrelevance without significant corrective action. The stakes are too high for a crowded field to hand the nomination to a candidate who earns just 35 percent of the vote, and I will help ensure this does not happen.

The path to winning was clear, but I believe I can have more influence on the future of the Republican Party and the 2024 nominating process not as a candidate but as the governor of the first-in-the-nation primary state — a governor who is unafraid to speak candidly about issues, candidates and the direction of our party, untethered from the limitations of a presidential campaign and unleashed from conventional boundaries. We must not be complacent, and candidates should not get into this race to further a vanity campaign, to sell books or to audition to serve as Donald Trump’s vice president.

Since 2017, the national Republican Party has lost up and down the ballot, in red states and in blue states, and in elections spanning the House, Senate and presidency. That will happen again unless we Republicans undergo a course correction.

Current polls indicate Trump is the leading Republican candidate in 2024. He did not deliver on his promises to drain the swamp, secure the border and instill fiscal responsibility while in office — and added $8 trillion to our national debt — yet now he wants four more years. He is facing numerous investigations and continues to peddle the conspiracy theory that he won the 2020 election, repelling independents.

If he is the nominee, Republicans will lose again. Just as we did in 2018, 2020 and 2022. This is indisputable, and I am not willing to let it happen without a fight.

By choosing not to seek the nomination, I can be more effective for the Republican Party in ways few other leaders can. The microphone afforded to the governor of New Hampshire plays a critical role in an early nominating state. I plan to endorse, campaign and support the candidate I believe has the best chance of winning in November 2024.

To win, Republicans need our message to appeal to new voters, and we can do this without sacrificing classic conservative principles of individual liberty, low taxes and local control. But we must abandon the issues that are solely made for social media headlines, such as banning books or issuing curriculum fiats to local school districts hundreds of miles away from state capitals. Republicans should re-embrace local control and let parents within their own communities decide what’s right.

In 2024, millennials and Gen Zers will be a significant voting bloc. Republicans must not cede this ground. Too often, we have terrible messengers who are focused on the wrong issues. Instead of pushing deeply unpopular and restrictive nationwide abortion bans, Republicans should recognize that every time they open their mouths to talk about banning abortion, an independent voter joins the Democrats...........

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/05/chris-sununu-trump-gop-2024/