'Increasing GOP creepiness' is alienating voters party can't afford to lose: analysis
The Bulwark's A.B. Stoddard argued on Monday that former President Donald Trump and his allies' attacks on the legal system that rendered a guilty verdict against him recently would do him no favors with crucial swing voters.
In particular, Stoddard said that "increasing GOP creepiness" in the party's devotion to the former president could alienate key voters that the party cannot afford to lose if it hopes to retake the White House.
"As Republicans' brains break, it appears voters may have reached a breaking point with Trump," Stoddard argues. "Multiple polls conducted since Trump’s guilty verdict show that more voters think the jury issued a correct verdict than not. Majorities and pluralities in the surveys show voters believe Trump committed a crime, intentionally did something wrong, and was not treated more harshly than other defendants by the justice system."
While the polls have only shown a slight shift in President Joe Biden's favor since the verdict came down, Stoddard said that it may not take much in a highly polarized electorate to tip the scales.
"Overt efforts by Trump and Republicans to delegitimize the justice system are not popular outside of MAGA with normal people who fly their American flags right-side up," she contends. "As Republicans become increasingly radicalized by Trump’s retribution campaign they risk alienating independent voters. And after the conviction, these voters are more likely to be paying far more attention to the campaign."
Stoddard also speculates that the verdict has harmed Trump's mental state, as she's noticed that his behavior has grown even more extreme after he was found guilty.
"Trump’s lies have become more deranged since the verdict," she writes. "Not only did he claim last week that he never said 'Lock her up,' about Hillary Clinton in 2016, which we all heard repeatedly and can instantly find video of on our phones, but this weekend he claimed that it was he and not Biden who capped insulin at $35 per month 'for millions of Americans,' which every insulin user in the country knows is a lie."