A whopping two-thirds of Republican primary voters say they stand behind former President Donald Trump and dismiss concerns about his electability, despite his recent criminal arrest and the other legal investigations into his past conduct, a new national NBC News poll finds.
That — along with his double-digit lead over his nearest potential GOP rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — makes Trump the clear frontrunner in the early race for the Republican presidential nomination.
The Republican Party’s continued enthusiasm for Trump stands in contrast to an anxious nation’s displeasure with how the 2024 race is shaping up. Substantial majorities of all Americans don’t want Trump or President Joe Biden to run for president in 2024, setting up a potentially divisive and uninspiring general-election rematch between the two men, with Biden expected to launch his re-election bid in the coming days.
We shouldn’t be surprised that a party of ignorant conspiracy theorists believe that every last one of Trump’s crimes and scandals are the work of a conspiracy to take him down. It’s how they think and the evidence they have is that there are so many of them that it can’t be true. A finding of guilt in any or all of them won’t change that.
If you want to know just how many of these people exist this tells the tale:
Yet among all voters — not just Republicans — 52% believe that Trump is being held to the same standard as anyone else accused of doing what he did as he faces charges in New York. Another 43% disagree and say he’s being unfairly targeted.
43% of the country is off its rocker. There’s no other way to explain this.