Right-wing commentator Stephen L. Miller, writing for Newsweek on Thursday, warned GOP base voters that the real boon to Democrats from the indictment of former President Donald Trump isn't the chance to lock him up, which is unlikely to happen.
Rather, he said, it's that Trump will once again be allowed to dominate the news cycle and cruise to re-nomination in 2024, defining the Republican Party before any Trump alternatives have a chance to make their case — and that is something they should not allow to happen.
"Trump is not due back in court in New York City until December, a month before the first likely GOP primary debate. Those debates will not focus on the central issues facing the country, but rather the legal problems swirling around the former president. Candidates will be forced to address their relationship to the former president and where they stand with him, and not much else," wrote Miller. "The goal here is to once again engineer an endless news cycle oxygen suck and it's being engineered by the Biden White House, the DNC, their allies in mass media, and even Trump himself, who is often times a willing participant driving all of the noise."
Recent polls indicate this is exactly how things are playing out, with Trump surging in polls since being indicted, and any realistic competitors to him falling further and further behind.
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Both Biden and Trump would love for this to happen, Miller wrote — but the loser will be the GOP itself, if primary voters let it happen.
"Trump's fate will be decided by GOP primary voters. They can choose to rally around Trump and ride him into the general election, with the backing of the Democrats and the media, or they can finally decide the drama and the chaos are all too much, and turn the page," he wrote. "Trump's fate, and the fate of 2024, is ultimately only up to them. It just depends on how much they love or hate the show the media is putting on for them, once again."
