GOP, in all-out panic, is only bringing more attention to Trump's criminality

Promising retribution for Trump's 34-count felony conviction, Republicans are proving the point. And Americans are getting it.

One of the most hilarious soundbites of the past few days is from GOP Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama responding to Newsmax hosts concerned about the Biden campaign using the term “convicted felon” in describing Donald Trump:

I hope they keep pushing that narrative. I think it’s a winning strategy—not for the Democrats but for Americans.

Tuberville, not the brightest bulb in the Senate, likely truly believes that, as do other hardcore MAGA cultists.

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But it’s quite evident that other Republican leaders are in a complete panic, unhinged and furiously spinning about Trump’s 34-count conviction. They've come together around this kind of message—that the conviction helps Trump—because they’ve got nothing else. Within 24 hours, they were bragging about Trump’s fundraising haul—it’s not shocking that the same deluded MAGA base would give him more money—and fueling the idea that Trump’s conviction would be rocket fuel in the election.

But let’s be clear: Being a convicted felon is a disaster for Trump, and they know it.

The polling by the corporate media, which Republicans have sworn by in recent months because Trump was slightly leading or tied, now shows it: The clear majority of Americans in poll after poll approve of the verdict, and we’ve seen shifts from Trump to Biden in polls in which the pollsters went back and polled the exact same people, including a New York Times/Siena poll and Echelon Insights, a Republican polling outfit that now shows Biden with a two-point lead after the two were previously tied with those same exact voters.

But even without any Trump voters flipping—and I’ve been critical of the polls this far out, so I don’t put a lot of faith in them—Trump is in trouble, as I’ve explained several times in recent weeks. He hit his ceiling, and has always had a ceiling, while Biden has had room to grow among his own base. Trump has desperately needed to bring in independents, suburban voters, women, and others. Getting indicted is not the way to do that.

And yet, the GOP is doing the Democrats’ work for them. Calling for revenge against Democratic politicians, they’re only bringing more attention to Trump’s criminality and their embrace of it, all because Trump is demanding that response.

Per The New York Times:

Within hours of a jury finding Mr. Trump guilty last week, the anger congealed into demands for action. Since then, prominent G.O.P. leaders in and out of government have demanded that elected Republicans use every available instrument of power against Democrats, including targeted investigations and prosecutions.

Stephen Miller, Trump’s deranged senior aide, went on Fox News and gave orders:

Is every House committee controlled by Republicans using its subpoena power in every way it needs to right now? Is every Republican D.A. starting every investigation they need to right now?

Congressional Republicans followed suit, with Jim Jordan calling for a bill to stop cases against Trump by defunding them, something threatened in the past, but which fell flat. This one would be more specific:

One proposed policy rider…would prohibit funding for an “office of a Special Counsel, who has not been confirmed by the United States Senate to serve as a U.S. Attorney,” from being used “to bring a criminal prosecution of a former or current President or Vice President.”

Another rider would prohibit funds from being used to consult, advise or direct state prosecutors and state attorneys general “in the civil action or criminal prosecution of a former or current President or Vice President brought against them in state court.”

This urgent effort not only shows the GOP trying to get Trump off for the crimes he’s committed; it’s paving the way for Trump to continue committing crimes if he becomes president again.

But then there’s this one. Other Republicans are pushing for a floor vote on a bill to allow any current or former president to move any state prosecution brought against them to federal court.

Think about that: The party of “states rights” wants to take away the power of state prosecutors and allow corrupt GOP presidents and former presidents—like Trump—to bring cases to federal court, where they’ve appointed people like Aileen Cannon in Florida and have a Supreme Court that is completely in the tank for the GOP.

This is insanity. And, again, it’s only bringing further attention to Trump’s criminality and the GOP’s embrace of it. Rather than taking attention away from Trump’s conviction—and his other crimes—the GOP leaders, celebrities and influencers, are just directing more media attention to them.

If the election is focused on Trump’s criminality it favors President Biden, make no mistake.

Some GOP senators, like Mitch McConnell, want to focus on issues they believe will benefit the GOP, such as the economy and immigration—though Democrats have a good story to tell on those, as we’ve been saying—but the problem for him is that Trump’s potential running mates include GOP senators who are on the talk shows discussing Trump’s conviction and defending him, because they’re auditioning for Trump.

Senator Tim Scott, for example, claimed Trump’s conviction was pure gold, bringing the party together. He said that he was getting calls from Never Trumpers saying, “I’m on the bandwagon now.” That sounds utterly preposterous. And again, the more the GOP talks like that, the more they’re only helping Democrats.

And Trump himself will never stop talking after being convicted. He’s given several interviews in recent days, and in all of them he makes it clear he wants retribution and will weaponize the government against his perceived enemies—again playing into the Democrats’ hands, as voters do not want to see that. Trump even went after Hillary Clinton again in an interview with Newsmax:

Wouldn’t it be terrible to throw the president’s wife and the former secretary of state — think of it, the former secretary of state, but the president’s wife, into jail. Wouldn’t that be a terrible thing? But they want to do it,. So, you know, it’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us to, and it’s very possible that it’s going to have to happen to them.

Again, some Republicans like Tommy Tuberville are so deep in the cult that they believe it helps to have Trump wearing the badge of “convicted felon.”

The rest, however, know the truth but are in a frenzy of anxiety, hoping against all hope that ginning up the idea that Trump was treated unjustly—and making threats of revenge—will somehow bring more sympathy, and votes, to Trump.

But who among those who are voting against Trump is suddenly going to switch their votes because they feel sorry for him? With Trump needing more support—and possibly losing some now—it’s all bad for the GOP, which is now helping Democrats to make sure voters know Trump is a convicted felon.