“Georgia has become ground zero for exhaustion over the legal drama surrounding Donald Trump—and the GOP debate about whether to stick with him in 2024,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The three indictments he has faced to date have boosted Trump’s standing in national polls. But in Georgia—where Trump is expected to be indicted as soon as this week on charges related to his effort to overturn the 2020 election result in the state—there are signs that voters have tired of the 2020 election replays and of Trump himself.”
Complained one GOP consultant: “What has he done to net a single new vote since 2020 here?”
“Two prominent conservative law professors have concluded that Donald Trump is ineligible to be president under a provision of the Constitution that bars people who have engaged in an insurrection from holding government office,” the New York Times reports.
“The professors are active members of the Federalist Society, the conservative legal group, and proponents of originalism, the method of interpretation that seeks to determine the Constitution’s original meaning.”
Semafor: “Trump isn’t participating in any official Iowa State Fair political events — hosted by the Des Moines Register, Gov. Kim Reynolds, and Sen. Joni Ernst — but he will be making an appearance at the fairgrounds on Saturday.”
“The goal: Roll up with an entourage of Republican congressmen, soak up all the attention, and make the other candidates (including Ron DeSantis) look irrelevant. One well-sourced Republican said Trump wants to be carted from place to place, rather than do the standard walkaround — and maybe buy a round of pork chops for people along the way.”
“What does Trump have to worry about? Iowa Republicans swear there’s a significant contingent of soft Trump supporters who still harbor doubts about his electability. If they exist, they’ll be easy enough for reporters to spot — the event is a rare political cattle callwhere the crowds aren’t just hardcore conservative activists.”
In Iowa it’s almost physical…..
The night before the camps squared off at the state fair, an incident took place between the two at a bar in downtown Des Moines. According to three people who were at The Copper Cup, officials with the DeSantis-allied super PAC, Never Back Down, got into a shouting match with a Trump backer wearing Trump garb. The exact nature of what was said is disputed, though each side agreed that it centered on the Trump hats some of the patrons were sporting.
Fair goers have been spotted wearing Trump ‘Back to Back Champ’ Iowa State Fair Hats, which suggest — incorrectly — that the former president won the caucus there in 2016. And according to two witnesses, it was those hats that sparked a response from Erin Perrine, one of the Never Back Down officials.
“You know you lost,” one witness recalled [one of the Never Back Down officials.] Perrine saying.
The resulting shouting match lasted several minutes. Multiple F bombs were dropped. At one point, a Trump supporter made a lewd comment to Perrine, a fourth person familiar with the events told POLITICO. No physical fight ever occurred…..