Commenting on the news that Trump plans to end President Obama's DACA program, VP Pence gave ABC News his usual mealy mouthed defense of Trump, saying, "he'll make it with, as he likes to say, big heart." Back In January of 2016, Trump told ABC's David Muir that Dreamers would be safe under his presidency: "They…
Former President Donald Trump is expected to continue with his 2024 campaign for president despite being indicted in the Stormy Daniels investigation — and he and his allies are boasting that the prosecution, which they characterize as a political hit job, will backfire and help him gain support among voters.
But according to CNN political analyst Gloria Borger on Thursday, Republican strategists privately believe just the opposite.
"I'm anxious to get your thoughts that Trump has already fundraising on the basis of this criminal charge, this indictment," said anchor Wolf Blitzer.
"That did not take long, right?" said political analyst David Chalian. "And I don't think this will surprise anyone. But he blasted out a fundraising appeal with the New York Times headline of the indictment on it, saying that this is a 'dark day for the country' and asking people to donate to the cause to fight back again."
"This is part of the political playbook that they have written and been sort of previewing for these last couple of weeks," continued Chalian. "We were also talking about how other Republicans would be reacting, and by far most Republicans are reading from the script that Trump has written here, going after Alvin Bragg, calling this a political prosecution, and it's interesting to note one of his potential rivals in the race, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, put out a statement and he called this a 'dark day for America when a former president is indicted on criminal charges.' He went on to say that 'the presumption of innocence follows Mr. Trump. But that 'Trump should not be the next president, but that should be decided by voters and not in a court.' So here was somebody, one of his potential rivals, who is choosing not to come in and join in the attack on Bragg and the attack on the prosecution."
"And Wolf, if I could just piggyback on that for a moment, I've been texting with some Republican strategists who want to remain anonymous at this point," said Borger. "But they are saying that what we're hearing from congressmen, etcetera, which one said to me, 'You shouldn't believe them because they all know that this is bad for Trump. It could harden his core supporters. But that's not enough to ever win again.' And he said, you know, he lost people from 2016 to 2020, and getting indicted for hush money is not going to bring back independent voters."
"So when Republicans start thinking about beyond the primary say he could be the nominee, they have to start thinking about electability," Borger continued. "And we've seen that seep into the conversation more and more and more as Republican voters start thinking about this, and this does play into the electability question. That's what Asa Hutchinson is really talking about. That's what Chris Christie was talking about. More directly, I think, but I think that Trump people have to be thinking about that as well."
Watch the segment below or at this link.
Gloria Borger says Republicans know Trump isn't viable in 2020 www.youtube.com
In a voice memo to Raw Story, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) decried the indictment of former President Donald Trump and vowed to stand by his side.
“Tonight I'm giving a Lincoln Day address in Gettysburg, here the most important battle of the Civil War was fought … And the irony could not be any stronger given that President Trump was just indicted by the Manhattan AG Alvin Bragg tonight,” Greene told Raw Story.
“I'll be reminding the audience of our great founding fathers who died, lost family members, were tortured, lost their businesses and all of their money because they stood against tyrants and stood against the most powerful King and his army," she said. "They stood for freedom and fought for freedom so that America could begin. History repeats itself and it seems to be that we're under similar circumstances. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg has made a very dangerous, and in my opinion, illegal mistake. And in the end he will be the one that looks like a fool because President Trump will be able to beat this indictment in court. It's easy to get a grand jury to give an indictment but it's a whole other matter to get a guilty verdict in court that Bragg will not get."
Greene continued: "I've always stood by President Trump and I will stand alongside him in this fight because the truth every single Republican in America needs to understand that they're not just coming after President Trump. They're coming after every single one of us. And right now President Trump is the only one standing in the way and he's the first one they want to take down.”
Greene's staff informed Raw Story she was on the move and hastily sent her thoughts as soon as she could, while the news was breaking.
Shortly after a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Donald Trump, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday said he has the former president’s back.
McCarthy in a statement he posted on Twitter alleged that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg “has irreparably damaged our country in an attempt to interfere in our Presidential election.”
McCarthy promised to hold Bragg “and his unprecedented abuse of power to account.”
“As he routinely frees violent criminals to terrorize the public, he weaponized our sacred system of justice against President Donald Trump,” McCarthy’s statement said.
“The American people will not tolerate this injustice, and the House of Representatives will hold Alvin Bragg and his unprecedented abuse of power to account.”
RELATED: 'About damn time': Trump indictment fires up politicians
CNN’s Manu Raju noted that the Speaker is calling for Congress to compel Bragg’s testimony despite the charges or evidence in the case against Trump haven’t yet been revealed.
“Nobody has seen the charges or evidence yet, but House Republicans indicating they plan to press ahead to press Bragg to testify on Hill and turn over documents,” Raju tweeted.
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