The former American president does not seem to lose support, in the wake of his last four indictments, and especially the day after the announcement of the start scheduled for March 4 of his trial for having contributed to the riots of 6 January 2021 against the American democracy dome. But the thick varnish that surrounds it is slowly starting to crack.
For 24 hours, several Republican voices have no longer been afraid to be heard to underline the risk of his candidacy several months before the next presidential election of 2024. The former lieutenant-governor of Georgia, the Republican Geoff Duncan, even goes going so far as to call on his people to choose a candidate other than Donald Trump, whose “moral sense is more like that of an ax killer than of a president”, he said Monday without going around the pot on CNN.
“We have to do something here and now. It’s either our turning point or our last breath as Republicans,” he said, following Monday’s federal court decision to start the historic trial of the former president. for his attempt to corrupt the 2020 vote, a day before “Super Tuesday”, next March. This moment is pivotal in the primaries in the United States with votes then being played in a dozen states at the same time, thus offering the candidates for the nomination of each party the possibility of obtaining a large number of delegates . Super Tuesday can make or break presidential ambitions.
“Disastrous”
“It’s disastrous for the Republican Party,” said former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, an opponent of Donald Trump in the current Republican nomination. We could have a presidential candidate who, starting probably March 4 and for the next four to six weeks, is going to have to be present every day in a courtroom in Washington, DC, and is not going to be able to campaign against Joe Biden”.
The politician, critic of the populist, reiterated the criticisms he has made since entering the American electoral race, believing that Donald Trump “simply cannot be our candidate”, because of “his personal conduct”. .
Sign of concern in the Republican ranks, Sunday, a group of Republicans critical of the ex-president, the Republican Accountability Project, for its part launched an advertising campaign inviting voters of their party to move away from a candidate not just harmful to Republicans, but also to American democracy, he said.
“It’s important that Donald Trump face the consequences of his actions,” reads the 60-second message, which is currently airing all week on Fox News in the Phoenix, Milwaukee and Atlanta areas. key cities in Arizona, Wisconsin and Georgia in the upcoming US election. For him, “nothing matters. But this is not acceptable, because in the United States the rule of law is still important,” the message continues, highlighting the 91 charges the ex-president faces “in four separate cases. for attempted theft of elections, falsification of business records and mishandling of classified information”.
“Donald Trump has spent the past seven years acting as if the rule of law does not apply to him,” Gunner Ramer, political director of the Republican Accountability Project, summed up in a press release to justify this campaign. “We remind the American people that no one in this country is above the law, not even a former president. »
The best candidate
On Tuesday, the ex-president bulged out his chest once again, denouncing the prosecution and the progress of the legal proceedings against him, which he continues to portray as a “campaign plan for [ses] political opponents,” he wrote on his Truth social network. He was also threatening there, urging the “Democrats” to “be careful” of what they were doing.
The ex-president’s legal setbacks do not seem to be affecting his election campaign, according to the latest Morning Consult poll, which indicates that 62% of Republican voters still consider him the best candidate to face Joe Biden in November 2024. The question was asked the day after the populist’s forensic identification photo was taken, a historic event that took place in a Georgia jail last week where he surrendered to justice. He faces 13 counts in the southern state for seeking to “conjure up” voters in his favor to steal Joe Biden’s victory there in 2020.
Geoff Duncan, then lieutenant-governor of Georgia, found himself at the forefront of this attempt to corrupt the electoral process by a defeated president, but still in office at the White House. Republicans are now placed in front of “a dashboard of lights, bells and alarms” that alert them to the many issues and threats facing them, he said, hoping that all these signals quickly end up being taken into consideration to prevent the party and the country from facing the worst, according to him.
