Their false attacks on Trump in 2016 didn’t work, especially with an unlikable person like Hillary Clinton running. And when American citizens could see that Hillary was given special treatment over her email felonies. Without COVID, Trump would most likely be president now, even with the Democrat cheating
‘We’ve seen this story before’: Dems grow anxious of a Trump ’16 redux
These should be celebratory times for Democrats. But as Donald Trump is set to get booked on Tuesday over a hush money payment he made to a porn star, a chunk of the party is growing anxious. An uneasy déjà vu has set in.
“Last time people were rooting for Donald Trump, he ended up president of the United States,” said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif). “We’ve seen this story before.”
The electoral potency of Trump is once more the central element of the Democratic Party’s internal debates. Back in 2016, Trump was supposed to have been the perfect opponent: too crude and way too outrageous to win a general election. As Hillary Clinton’s campaign geared up for that November’s race, many were rooting for Trump to be the GOP nominee, believing that he’d be the easiest Republican to beat.
It didn’t work out as planned. And the shock many in the party experienced because of it compelled them to pledge that they’d take a more sober-minded approach to the possibility of a Trump revival.
But with Trump once more eyeing the White House, the conventional wisdom is again forming that he would be the easiest Republican to defeat, owing to the myriad of legal problems he’s facing.
Even quite a few Democrats realize that the charges from Alvin Bragg are complete mule fritters, that they are ginned up by a guy who ran on promising to prosecute a US citizen no matter what. That’s not justice. And they realize that it could be them on the chopping block next if this continues.
Biden’s people aren’t so sure
They also point to the affirmative case for Biden, including two years of job growth, as well as steady leadership during the COVID pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
You mean how more people died under Biden from COVID, how he instituted mandates and ruined businesses, how the jobs that came back were due to lockdowns instituted mostly by Democrats, and the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, leading to Putin invading Ukraine, where Biden is sending gobs of money and arms?
But even as many Democrats are quietly betting that Trump is the most damaged potential GOP nominee, some are wondering whether that viewpoint misses something fundamental about his support. They fret that they might jinx the election too.
“Trump is a tremendously flawed candidate who has hurt his party in every election since 2016, but it’s impossible to say that he is the weakest because none of these other Republicans have been on the national stage before,” said Dan Pfeiffer, who served as an adviser to former President Barack Obama. “Given the Republican bias in the Electoral College — any Republican, including Trump, could win the election.”
Trump defied the odds once before. While his portion of the electorate may have shrunk since leaving office, he won more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016 and his MAGA base remains fervent.
The witch hunt is driving people to support Trump, and Trump isn’t brain-addled like Biden. Trump didn’t attempt to control the citzens at every turn like Biden. For all the calls of Trump being a Fascist, he was reducing the power of the federal government. These witch hunt attacks on Trump only serve to show the citizens that the government is not there to serve them, and can go after anyone for anything.
Time will tell.
Read: Democrats Start To Realize Their Witch Hunt For Trump Could Backfire »