Republican voters are enraged over the Espionage Act indictment of former President Donald Trump for stowing highly classified national defense information in unsecured boxes at his Mar-a-Lago resort — echoing the former president's claims that it's all a political conspiracy against him.
But that doesn't mean all of them want to vote for him. Some are just tired of the drama and want to move on, reported the Associated Press on Monday.
"Many voters in early states who will play an outsize role in deciding Trump's political fate agree that he is being treated unfairly," reported Thomas Beaumont. "While there is widespread distrust of the Justice Department and its pursuit of him on charges that he illegally stored classified documents and tried to hide them from federal officials, some voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina say Trump has become too damaged to be nominated by his party a third time."
One such voter who spoke to reporters was Kathleen Evenhouse, a 72-year-old author from Pella, Iowa — where the first Republican contest will be held.
"I think we're playing a game as a country," she said. "I think that damages any sense of justice or any sense of — should I even bother to vote? Why should I listen to the news? Or why should I care?" She added that she will in fact vote in the Republican caucus, but that it won't be for Trump — even though she is angry at his legal situation.
Although many voters seem to echo this sentiment, Trump still appears to be comfortably ahead in polling. Nearly all surveys show Trump comfortably ahead of his closest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — and internal polls for both Trump and DeSantis show the former president leading, although by wildly different margins.