Jan. 6 hearings put pressure on Trump to jump into 2024 race before GOP is ready: ‘He sees it as cover’

Donald Trump is exploring another presidential campaign, but two Washington, D.C., insiders agreed Republican candidates aren't too excited about him announcing his candidacy.

The former president has reportedly been discussing his 2024 plans at secret dinners with wealthy donors and high-profile supporters, but MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire is hearing that GOP congressional candidates want him to hold off any announcement until after the November election.

"There are a lot of Republicans who are very leery that if Trump jumps in ahead of the midterms, that could be an unwanted distraction for a party that seems poised to do well in November," Lemire said.

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Axios co-founder Mike Allen agreed, but also added that the weekly drumbeat of damaging revelations from the House select committee made a Trump announcement increasingly likely.

"If you're a Republican running for office, running for the House or Senate, you want him to wait until midterms, but there is no sign of that," Allen said. "The signs, in fact, all of our reporting shows Donald Trump is likely to announce sooner rather than later. I can give you a rule of thumb. This is what we've long said, the worse Donald Trump's legal problems are, the more likely he is to announce. I think the worse the revelations out of the Jan. 6 committee, the more traction, the more viewership, the revelations from the Jan. 6 committee gets, the sooner he's likely to announce."

"He sees it as cover, he sees it as a way to project himself," Allen added. "But those people who are running, and your question about the timing, if you're running for office and Donald Trump announces for president in 2024 in 2022, what are you going to be asked about any place you go? Republicans want to talk about inflation, but they'll be talking about Donald Trump if he is announced."

Watch the segment below or at this link.

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