Trump's 'stranglehold' on the GOP will result in an 'electoral bonanza for Democrats' for years: CNN

According to an opinion piece on CNN, Republicans erred when they failed to convict Donald Trump on sedition charges in his second impeachment, thereby insuring he will maintain his "stranglehold" on the GOP that just lost the White House and the Senate.

According to former Michael Bloomberg adviser Arick Wierson and campaign strategist Bradley Honan, the "chaos" that Trump will create for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) will be the gift that keeps on giving for Democrats.

With Politico reporting that Trump will be holding court at Mar-a-Lago over the next few weeks and meeting with potential insurgent candidates who hope to carry the Trump banner into Republican primaries in 2022, the two columnists said the GOP is facing a "bloodletting."

"Make no mistake, Trump is toxic," they wrote as they predicted, "This should be an electoral bonanza for Democrats in the months and years to come."

According to the two, recent history should serve as a warning to the Republican Party that just can't seem to quit the ex-president.

"He lost reelection decisively -- by more than seven million votes overall and by a big margin in the Electoral College. In early January, he was a pivotal factor in the two Georgia runoff election losses that cost Republicans the Senate. And don't forget Trump was also the reason Republicans lost control of the House in 2018," they wrote. "You don't need to be a professional pollster to understand that Republicans are in trouble among the suburban swing voters who simply loathe Trump. Poll after poll shows this: While the GOP may continue to run up the score in crimson-red states, Democrats will be increasingly competitive in other states with educated, purplish areas, like Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and now Georgia."

According to the two, Republicans would be best served if they were to lock "Trump in a suitcase and throw him overboard" -- figuratively speaking.

"If Trump stays in play -- and remains the bogeyman whom most Democrats see as an existential threat to our democracy and country -- he will help keep Democrats united, easing the potentially destructive tensions between the party's progressive and centrists wings," they wrote. "And if things couldn't get any worse, the House Republican caucus's failure to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene, the rabid conspiracy theorist from Georgia, from key committee assignments has already provided a bounty of content for Democratic ad makers targeting vulnerable House Republicans in swing districts."

With that in mind, they predicted a hard road ahead for Republicans unwilling to cast off the baggage of Trump.

"All of this paints a less than rosy political and electoral picture for the GOP as they head into the 2022 midterms and look ahead to 2024. Their failure to amputate Trumpism will bring about more painful bloodletting for Republicans at the federal and state level in the years to come; the warning signs are all flashing bright red," they warned.

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