Asa Hutchinson has tried mightily to turn himself into moderate and in today’s GOP, I suppose he is one. In reality he’s a hardcore old-school conservative. Nonetheless, I suppose somebody had to take this tack in the GOP primary and it looks like he’s the guy: Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson made his 2024 White House bid official on Sunday in an exclusive sit-down interview with ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. Ahead of his presidential announcement, Hutchinson, a Republican, spent several days in the first-in-the nation caucus state of Iowa, stirring speculation that he intended to enter into what he acknowledged is a tense national political landscape. “I have made a decision, and my decision is I’m going to run for president of the United States,” Hutchinson told Karl. “While the formal announcement will be later in April, in Bentonville [Arkansas], I want to make it clear to you, Jonathan, I am going to be running. And the reason is, I’ve traveled the country for six months, I hear people talk about the leadership of our country.
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JV Last takes a look at the GOP primaries’ various possibilities in light of the indictment: Yeah, no. Makes no sense. Another part of the dynamic that gets frozen is DeSantis. As it stands right now, just about everyone assumes he’s running. It would destabilize the race if DeSantis didn’t run. And Trump’s indictment almost certainly keeps DeSantis in, even if his polling continues to decline. We know this because yesterday evening—by total coincidence—Florida Republicans introduced their bill to change the law so that DeSantis could run for president as the sitting governor. This makes sense because it underscores the extent to which DeSantis is less a competitor to Trump than his understudy. He’ll keep making demonstrations and preparing his run because someone has to be ready in case Trump blows up. In short: I can see how the indictment might introduce uncertainty into the Republican primary. But right now I’m convinced that it will function as an artificial stabilizing element which actually makes it harder for the campaign to develop and change according to its own logic. Agreed.
No it’s not crazy to hold a president accountable: In the eyes of the world’s media, the indictment of Donald Trump was not the big freaking deal many Americans might expect. Save for a handful of English-language websites and newspapers, the story ranked beneath most regional and local concerns and in more than a handful it was found alongside or just above the coverage of other celebrity news items like the denial of parole to Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius and the Gwyneth Paltrow ski accident trial. There’s a reason for this and it may be hard for many Americans to hear. For all our chest-thumping about our world-leading democracy, we lag the world in living up to the idea that no one is above the law, particularly when it comes to heads of state and government. While, as much coverage at home and abroad noted, the indictment of a president is unique in American history, to the rest of the world, holding leaders to account is much more commonplace. In fact, it is hard to find a major country as reluctant to require its leaders to face the legal music as we have been.
It’s all bad, but this one takes the cake: Cult? Nah…
By supporting Trump they are signing away any chances they have to win. Ron Brownstein lays it out: The dilemma for the Republican Party is that Donald Trump’s mounting legal troubles may be simultaneously strengthening him as a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination and weakening him as a potential general-election nominee. In the days leading up to the indictment of the former president, which Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced two days ago, a succession of polls showed that Trump has significantly increased his lead over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, his closest competitor in the race for the Republican nomination. Yet recent surveys have also signaled that this criminal charge—and other potential indictments from ongoing investigations—could deepen the doubts about Trump among the suburban swing voters who decisively rejected him in the 2020 presidential race, and powered surprisingly strong performances by Democrats in the 2018 and 2022 midterms.
Unless it is No, really. These GOP state senators in North Carolina introduced this bill on Thursday. I’m still not convinced it wasn’t an early April Fools’ Day gag. I am certain it’s Tim Moffitt trolling the left. VERY on brand. He’s also introduced legislation to allow one of his counties to “prohibit or restrict skateboarding” on public streets. Multiple outlets have reached out to Timmeh for comment on the trophy bill. So far, Moffitt’s not talking. Probably too busy snickering.
It’s not prosecution that’s selective “For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.” – Field Marshal Óscar R. Benavides, former president of Peru. Donald Trump niece Mary Trump summed up her uncle’s view of the world in just over 20 words Thursday night: “He knows the difference between right and wrong. He just never in a million years thought it would apply to him.” [timestamp 3:50] Selective constitution is now an organizing principle for the party that all but bears Trump’s name. It seems an awful lot of its members respect neither the Constitution or the rule of law, yet aspire to run a country ostensibly run based on them. I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will will not support and defend the Constitution of the United States. The only thing American about them are their birth certificates.
Here’s the thing: this may help Trump get the nomination. It won’t help him win the presidency. The man is a pig, accused of rape and sexual misconduct by dozens of women. Jeb apparently forgets that the whole thing is about Trump paying hush money to the porn actress he slept with while his wife was taking care of their newborn baby. I suppose if that was the only thing Trump had done, and the rest of his presidency was immaculate, the majority might chalk it all up to politics. But it’s just one of hundreds of transgressions, failures, corrupt acts and incompetency that we all saw with our own eyes.
That’s the headline for a piece I published in the Lowy Interpreter. The shorter version Australia’s decision to go ahead with the purchase of nuclear-powered submarines from the United States and United Kingdom reflects a judgement that China, and more particularly Chinese naval power, represents a serious threat to Australian interests. A prominent reason for this […]
He has some nerve… With all this tiresome whining about how “the left” and the Democrats are weaponizing the government against Donald Trump and his followers, it’s important to remember who’s the real weaponizer: Former President Donald J. Trump has regularly railed against a justice system that he contends has been deployed against him by his political opponents. “The Biden regime’s weaponization of our system of justice is straight out of the Stalinist Russia horror show,” he told a rally in Texas on Saturday night. But as is often the case with Mr. Trump, his accusations — widely repeated by other Republicans — reflect his own pattern of conduct: his history of threatening or seeking to employ the expansive powers of the presidency to go after his enemies, real and perceived. “He was always telling me that we need to use the F.B.I. and I.R.S. to go after people — it was constant and obsessive and is just what he’s claiming is being done to him now,” said John F. Kelly, Mr. Trump’s second White House chief of staff.