Columnist blames conservative media for why Republicans can’t move on from Trump

For several weeks, Republicans entertained the idea of moving on from Donald Trump to someone else as their party leader. There was speculation about Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), announcements from former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC), and impending rumors about Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).

But after DeSantis traveled the country and picked a fight with Disney, polling numbers show he's losing ground before even announcing the campaign. Meanwhile, despite an indictment and possible charges on the horizon from the special counsel and in Fulton County, Georgia, GOP support is coalescing behind Trump.

Writing for The Washington Post, columnist Philip Bump blames conservative media for giving Trump its airwaves to promote himself.

"Right-wing media is (and has long been) barely covering these issues. When they do, the tone often mirrors Trump’s — which is to say it’s dismissive," he explained. It's why Bump thinks 3 in 5 Republicans say they'll vote for Donald Trump, according to a detailed CBS News poll.

Bump cited closed-captioning data showing that when E. Jean Carroll first made allegations of rape against Trump in June 2019, "CNN mentioned it on-air more than 130 times" while "MSNBC mentioned it more than 110 times. Fox News mentioned it less than ten times. This year, the pattern has been similar. CNN has mentioned Carroll more than 230 times and MSNBC more than 440. Fox News has mentioned her seven times."

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It's similar to the allegations around adult film star Stormy Daniels, who was paid $130,000 to stay quiet about her affair with Trump. Other networks reported it, while Fox rarely did.

Fox has covered the FBI search executed on Mar-a-Lago due to the stolen document scandal, but they've only reported it as Trump being a victim of an FBI run amok. Their reporting is still significantly less than their cable news counterparts. Meanwhile, Fox has dialed up reporting on President Joe Biden having documents in his garage and in a storage closet at his foundation office.

"If charges emerge in Fulton County, Ga., as seems likely, it may actually surprise the network’s audience," Bump continued. "Since Trump was first recorded cajoling state officials to overturn the results of the 2020 election in January 2021, Fox News has mentioned the county in the context of Trump less than 100 times. CNN has mentioned it more than 800 times and MSNBC twice as often as CNN."

Bump closed by arguing that none of this will change over the next year and a half leading into the 2024 election. This is why, he explained, those skeptical of Trump in 2024 aren't being motivated by the legal problems.

Read the full report at The Washington Post.