According to a leading conservative columnist, Donald Trump's decision to try and make heroes out of the insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 is a massive mistake that will likely doom his political future.
As the former president kicked his 2024 presidential bid into high gear with a rally in Waco last week, he also took part in making a recording with rioters currently in custody, thereby aligning himself even more tightly with them which will become fodder for his opponents -- both Republicans and Democrats.
Writing for Politico, National Review editor-in-chief Rich Lowry admitted Trump's embrace of what the conservative called a "bloody riot" is an epic miscalculation.
"From the perspective of the immediate aftermath of Jan. 6 it was hard enough to believe that Donald Trump would survive the event, let alone make it a plank in a powerful comeback bid just a few years later," he wrote before adding, "For Trump, a master at appropriating the catch lines and attacks of the other side, reversing the meaning of Jan. 6 would be his most audacious move yet."
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Adding, "This is a huge mistake in every way, most importantly on the merits, but also on the politics," Lowry wrote that it shouldn't be surprising the former President is making it a central theme of his political comeback and that should be of concern too.
"Making excuses for or valorizing Jan. 6 is deeply wrong," he explained. and then added, "... justifying or excusing political violence has a deranging influence on the republic. The more reason both sides have to physically fear each other, the easier it is to justify extreme measures in response, in a widening gyre of escalation."
To a lesser degree, he added that, from a political perspective, it is a massive unforced error.
"If the other side is desperate to portray you as in bed with fanatics and rioters, it’s best not to go out of your way to prove them right. It’s perverse for Republicans that just as the Jan. 6 Committee has been put out of business and is no longer in a position to constantly remind the public of Jan. 6, here comes Donald Trump to remind people of Jan. 6," he explained. "What Trump is doing flies in the face of the lessons of the midterms. Jan. 6 lent emotional power to the Democratic argument that democracy was under threat, and Stop the Steal candidates proved radioactive. Trump wants, in effect, to repeat November 2022’s failed political experiment on a larger scale in 2024."
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