The number of Republican candidates vying for the party’s nomination is growing even though the current frontrunner, former President Donald J. Trump seems to already have an insurmountable lead but that could change if Democrat prosecutors are able to eliminate him from the equation, a CNN host believes that some of them are secretly hoping for such a result.
On Saturday’s edition of “Smerconish,” the show’s namesake Michael Smerconish speculated that the field of GOP White House hopefuls is only as large as it is because the candidates are counting on special counsel Jack Smith, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, and Attorney General Merrick Garland to rid them of Trump thereby making it a wide-open competition.
(Video: CNN)
“Why are so many Republican candidates now challenging Donald Trump for the GOP presidential nomination? Think about it. He’s a former president, essentially a GOP incumbent who’s consistently polling around 50% of the GOP vote in the polls,” he began.
“And we learned in 2016 that given the hardcore support that Trump enjoys from some, he’s the beneficiary of a large field. Remember, in that cycle, there were so many running that debates, they had a kids table,” he continued. “This time Trump announced first and then Nikki Haley and then Vivek Ramaswamy, Larry Elder, Asa Hutchinson, Tim Scott, and now Ron DeSantis, who, by the way, is only 44 years old. By Biden-Trump standards, he’s got three more decades to run for president.”
So why run now?” Smerconish asked. “Why get into the steel cage with a wrestler who always carries a foreign object? Mike Pence said he’ll soon make a decision. Chris Christie sure sounds like a candidate. Sununu might get in. Even Glenn Youngkin, according to Axios, is taking a second look.”
He then provided a theoretical answer to his own question.
“So what’s going on? Maybe that they don’t think they’ll have to beat Trump, that that work will be done by a combination of Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis, Jack Smith, and Merrick Garland.”
The host noted that the judge in Bragg’s “hush money” case centering around pornographic movie “actress” Stormy Daniels has set the trial date for Trump smack dab in the middle of next year’s primaries, a big disadvantage for the ex-POTUS as well as things heating up in Fulton County where another left-wing prosecutor is building a case against the frontrunner.
And there is also the imminent action by Smith, the former Hague war crimes prosecutor appointed by Garland who is reportedly zeroing in on the boxes of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago as the best shot to get Trump into a D.C. courtroom where his fate will be decided by jurors plucked from a local pool in an area in which he is overwhelmingly hated.
The host concluded by suggesting that Trump’s removal from the equation could also reset the 2024 election by also eliminating President Joe Biden, the deeply popular incumbent.
“And if they’re right and Trump isn’t the candidate, does that put more pressure on President Biden to step aside, where in the face of polling showing that even Democrats want a change in their ticket, his retort is to suggest that he alone can defeat Donald Trump?” Smerconish asked.
“Bottom line, none of us have any idea what’s about to unfold, but it’s going to be riveting,” he said.
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