49% of independents and 15% of Republicans say Trump should end his campaign after his conviction on tax and election fraud.
Elections in America always hinge on what the independents or undecided - those 10-15% in the middle of the electorate who can vote for either party - decide to do.
A new poll shows that nearly half of the independent voters and a significant fraction of Republicans want Donald Trump to end his presidential campaign. This does not augur well for Trump. He already lost in 2020 by several million votes, and four years later the younger generation of first-time voters is more likely to go for the Democrats than for the Republicans. He and the Republicans have already alienated the women vote with their stance against abortion. The economy continues to do very well under Biden with unemployment remaining around the 3.8% bar.
The only question that will haunt Biden is whether the growing segment of anti-war, pro-Palestine voters will withhold their votes from Biden after his disastrous blind support for the Israeli carnage in Gaza. These voters will not vote for Trump under any circumstance, but if they choose not to vote for Biden either, in retribution for his Gaza policy, they may swing the vote by default to Trump.
A Morningside Consult poll from Friday said that 49 percent of independent voters and 15 percent of Republican voters want Trump to end his 2024 bid after his felony conviction. The poll also demonstrated that 54 percent of voters approve of the historic verdict against Trump.
Trump’s sentencing is on 11 July, just days before the Republican National Convention where he will be named the official GOP presidential candidate.
The same poll indicated half of voters oppose a prison sentence for Trump. 69 per cent of voters think a fine would be appropriate, while 49 per cent think Judge Juan Merchan should place him on probation, according to the Morningside Consult poll.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden commented on the conviction on Friday, decrying Trump's “reckless” attacks on the trial and said the verdict is evidence that the justice system works. “Donald Trump was given every opportunity to defend himself,” he said, adding that the case against Trump had been brought in a state court, not a federal one, and was decided by an ordinary jury of “12 citizens, 12 Americans, 12 people like you” that was chosen “the same way every jury in America is chosen”.
Yet, Trump’s die-hard supporters are calling for violence online in the wake of his conviction.
“Find the jurors. All of them. Take no prisoners,” wrote one user on a Trump-focused message board.
“Just give them the rope,” said another, in an explicit reference to lynching. “The time for talking has long gone. Let them swing outside the courthouse.”
Prominent GOP politicians have rallied like a herd around their Dear Leader, further demonstrating that the Republican Party has descended into a cult like association where the boss is infallible. Overall, they have refused to accept the verdict, calling the ruling “rigged” and “corrupt” despite the lack of any evidence to back these assertions. Most Americans continue to believe that the United States remains a country of laws with a constitutional justice system that is the envy of the world.
In conclusion, Trump stands to lose big time in November. But that also poses an even greater danger to the country on account of the violence he and his followers inflicted on the country after his 2020 loss. All indications are that Trump will again call for violence when he loses in 2024.
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