'Bunch of baloney': After Trump's acquittal, some supporters eager to see him on the ballot in 2024
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
HONESDALE, Pa. — Brian O'Neill thinks House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is the one who should be impeached.
"For putting him through this," said O'Neill, 53, a resident of this solidly Trump-supporting town of 4,000 in northeastern Pennsylvania, referring to former President Donald Trump, who was acquitted by the Senate on a charge of incitement of insurrection. House impeachment managers, arguing a case backed by harrowing video from the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, which Trump was accused of inciting, secured the most bipartisan support for conviction in impeachment history.
Of the proceedings, O'Neill said: "I've never seen such an injustice. It was a whole bunch of baloney."
Terry Smith, 73, a retired mechanic, said he was "relieved" that Trump was acquitted, adding that the trial was a huge waste of taxpayers' money and everyone's time.
Smith and O'Neill, like the more than a dozen other Trump voters interviewed across three northeastern Pennsylvania counties that Trump handily carried in November, said they were energized by his second impeachment and House Democrats' dire warnings that he was a danger to democracy who must convicted and barred from holding federal office again. Both voted for Trump twice, and both said they were eager to do so a third time.
Charlie Carretti, a retiree in Honesdale who used to work in publishing, said, "The guy did a great job as president, and Democrats just don't want to give that to him." He called the impeachment case "a joke, a charade and a waste of time" that was designed by Democrats "only to hurt the guy."
Carretti, 70, said that he hopes Trump runs again in 2024 and that Trump, as his impeachment defense lawyers argued, was devoid of responsibility for the violent Capitol mob.
"What happened there was disgusting, but there is no way Donald Trump provoked it," Carretti said, pointing specifically to Trump's words at the Jan. 6 "Stop the Steal" rally urging his supporters to march "over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."
"Those people should be held responsible. But there was no way Trump incited them. He had nothing to do with it. It was a bunch of nut jobs and psychos who did it," Carretti said.
Serena Woolley, 23, a Republican, said: "Trump shouldn't have been impeached. And I don't think he should have been convicted."
Woolley didn't vote in the election out of opposition to both candidates. Trump is "not my favorite person, but he should be able to run again if he wants to," she said.
Even as some mainstream Republicans sought to use Trump's trial — and the case Democratic House impeachment managers made about his conduct before, during and after the riot — to draw a bright line between Trump and others in the GOP, at least one poll indicates that Trump is still the top choice of Republican voters.
The poll, conducted by Morning Consult and Politico during the two days after the Senate acquittal, found that 59 percent of Republican voters felt Trump should play a "major role" in the Republican Party moving forward. Fifty-four percent of Republican voters said they'd support Trump in a hypothetical 2024 primary, the poll showed.
Trump, making it clear that he understands how much influence he continues to hold, vowed in a statement moments after he was acquitted that "our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun."
Highlighting the growing divisions within his party, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a scathing speech after he voted to acquit Trump on procedural grounds that Trump was "practically and morally responsible" for the riot.
Strategists, however, said such strong voter support proves that the wing of the party still firmly in Trump's corner will wield significant influence, if not dominate the GOP's direction, for the foreseeable future.
"The Republican base has been loyal to Trump for a long time, and it isn't going to shift its loyalties overnight," veteran Republican strategist Alex Conant said. "Trump was still president less than a month ago. It will take time for the party to reimagine itself."
Conant said that how much and how rapidly the party might change "depends on what Trump, Republican leaders and Democrats" all do over the next year — but that for the time being, pro-Trump elements within the party remain powerful.
For example, Smith, the retired mechanic, called Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., one of the seven Republican senators who joined all Democrats in voting to convict Trump, "a fool" for his vote.
"I'd never support him again if he was running," he said of Toomey, who is not running for re-election next year.
Of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump and the seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict him, several have been censured or are facing censure by their state parties, including Toomey.
Trump himself appears to have begun hitting back against all the lawmakers who voted or spoke out against him during his trial.
On Tuesday night, he slammed McConnell as "a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack" in a lengthy statement.
"He doesn't have what it takes," Trump wrote. "Never did, and never will."
Further down, Trump added: "Where necessary and appropriate, I will back primary rivals who espouse Making America Great Again and our policy of America First."
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Some in the media, and some in the "both sides" crowd have always underestimated , not Trump, but the willingness of many Trump supporters to suspend reality and follow him no matter what.
After the election we heard all sort of predictions that Trump would fade away, even though he has promised his followers that "our new journey is just beginning".
Although a lot of it has been horrible for America, Trump almost always tries to do what he said he was going to do.
He's not going to fade away and the likelihood is that he will get worse as soon as he is able to find a place to get his "message" out in a mass way. He's on vacation right now. It won't last long.
Trump should play a "major role" in the Republican Party moving forward.
Absolutely....
I don't want him to run again, but we need him to energize the faithful, and to keep up the attack on Biden
First of all, you are not going to be able to control what Donald Trump does, he will do what best entertains and enriches him, not what is best for the Republican Party. And secondly, if only Donald Trump can "energize the faithful" you are screwed anyway.
Besides.... We've already seen to what length's Trump's faithful are willing to do..... like attacking and killing police officers in order to have him sit in the Oval Office. No Thank you!
Why do you want to attack Biden? Why not instead focus on securing a good R candidate for 2024 and formulating a winning platform?
Sure, criticize Biden when he screws up, but to simply focus on attacking Biden is divisive, counterproductive partisanship.
O what the Hell, give the man another shot.
Our elected politicians can't get along, nothing getting done anyway might as well let the ONE man take over and solve all our problems as he has already promised he'd do for us.
trump the man with Huge, Grandiose, Forward thinking ideas who by his own admission already knows and has all the best realistic answers America, nay.. the world needs to be great again.
In his honor I vote we rename the country to: Trunperica !
MTGA
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Now excuse me while I barf then fly after that pig that just flew by
Gosh non-reality is so cool !! I never want to leave !!
sarc