GOP 'quietly panicking' over 'devastating' poll numbers on Trump crimes: Morning Joe
Donald Trump may have finally reached a tipping point with voters after his fourth indictment, and MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said Republicans were "quietly panicking" about their 2024 chances.
The twice-impeached ex-president was charged with racketeering in Georgia for his role in a wide-ranging conspiracy to overturn his election loss in the state, and he faces charges in two federal cases and another case in New York, and the "Morning Joe" host pointed to new poll numbers that show few Americans believe he did nothing wrong.
"This is what Republicans have quietly been panicking about," Scarborough said. "You look at these numbers -- 64 percent in the [Associated Press] poll, 64 percent say they're not going to support Trump next year. I actually saw people connected with Mitch McConnell and other Republicans tweeting that out, that this is devastating. That's who the Republicans are moving towards putting up. He has a 33-percent approval rating, a favorable rating in that poll. The majority believe what he did was illegal, and there are so many other polls that came out yesterday that are showing the same thing. Independents breaking dramatically away from Donald Trump. Independents saying he should have been indicted, independents saying overwhelmingly that what he did was illegal."
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?
Polls found voters are most hostile to Trump for his actions in Georgia than the election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith, and even more voters believe he broke the law by hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
"You know, we've been careful not to draw any conclusions on where Republicans are going to go just because it's been so impossible to figure that out in the past six, seven years," Scarborough said. "My former party, I will say, for me, this is feeling a lot like June of 1974 leading up to [Richard] Nixon's resignation in August. Trump will not back out, but I tell the story repeatedly of my father, what I'm trying to get my arms around this, I remember my dad staying with Nixon until the very end and then reading the transcripts of the tapes and saying, 'That guy is unworthy to be president.'"
The polls also found 64 percent of Americans say they would not support Trump for a second term, while 54 percent say he threatened democracy itself, and Scarborough said very few people believe his actions were merely unethical.
"Only 15 percent of Americans, let's underline this, agree with Donald Trump that he did nothing wrong," Scarborough said. "Only 15 percent of Americans agree with Donald Trump that he did nothing wrong in the classified documents case. Only 14 percent of Americans say he did nothing wrong in the hush-money case. Of course, that is by far, for good reason, the weakest case, but these numbers, it sure seems like they're moving in one direction and the bad news for him is, the more people find out about these cases, the worse news it is for Donald Trump."
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