"Irredeemably Stupid."
"It should go without saying that the president’s conduct is not just morally obtuse but irredeemably stupid."
Noah Rothman, in the conservative journal, The National Review
It is the Democrats' best chance of winning in 2024.
The National Review said the same thing as the NY Times, Washington Post, and the broadcast networks, that Trump is grasping a political anchor. He did it vividly an hour after his rally in Manchester, New Hampshire. He embraced a convicted and formerly-jailed January 6 rioter, the one I stood next to in line for his Manchester rally. Here are 30 seconds that I uploaded to YouTube:
Rothman wrote that "This unnecessary display practically obliged the press to perform a deep dive into Larson-Olson’s background, and that’s exactly what they did."
Larson-Olson held nothing back in comments she provided NBC News. “The punishment for treason is death, per the Constitution,” she said, adding that the Republicans who certified the votes of the 2020 election “deserve death.” The Trump superfan hoped she would secure “a front seat” to witness “Mike Pence being executed.”
That is exactly the kind of thing she said to me and the people around us in line. It took no digging to get her to open up. She was a font of Fox-Newsmax-Q-Parler conspiracies. She said something about the Pope being in cahoots on a vaccination conspiracy and the vaccine-manufacturers murdered children to make the vaccine. Sounds extreme? Heads up to readers: The people around me in the Trump lineup chimed in and generally agreed. She is an outlier in her appearance, but not in her overall orientation.
Trump may not endorse every one of her conspiracies, but he backed the single most visible and controversial thing she represents. Trump publicly backs the people who carried out the insurrection on the Capitol, even ones convicted of illegal acts. He calls participants patriots. Trump is unapologetic and unequivocal. Trump put his stake in the ground.
It is a minority opinion on a matter of importance. A majority of Americans are uncomfortable with what they saw on January 6. People who want to support Trump anyway need to avert their eyes. They look for a mental "out." Some claim it was really Antifa doing the rioting and planting a false flag, not Trump supporters. But the testimony of the people arrested show they were avid supporters; besides, Trump himself says they are his teammates. Tucker Carlson argued that it was an FBI-led takedown of Trump. That has unraveled. Carlson is getting sued by his chief target, Ray Epps. Some senators and media personalities say "it wasn't so bad, just a skirmish." But people saw video of hundreds of people climbing walls, breaking windows, pushing police. They cannot be hidden or diminished. Besides, Trump now calls them patriots valiantly breaking down doors in the cause of justice. We celebrate them, not hide them. Trump isn't giving voters any mental escape hatches to deny the reality that Trump supports the insurrection. It is a bad look.
Down-ballot candidates get caught in the undertow. It happened in nationally-watched races in Arizona and Pennsylvania. I watched it up close in race that was winnable for a Republican, the state senate race in Southern Oregon. The GOP candidate, Randy Sparacino, the nonpartisan mayor of Medford, ran as the Republican candidate for the state senate. His local party made a splash claiming the 2020 election was stolen. He stayed on board as a loyal Republican soldier, lavishly funded by Republican PACs, in public fully on board the team wherever it led. The anchor pulled him under.
Democrats have their own problems. The only person Biden can defeat in a general election is Trump. Polls show voters are very uncomfortable with Biden's age. Stuff happens to people in the 80s. No mainstream Democrat is stepping up to offer an alternative. Biden is blocking the lane. Democrats are rolling the dice.