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On Monday, the House committee investigating Jan. 6 reconvened for its second public hearing with the apparent intention of establishing beyond doubt that former President Donald Trump had no reasonable expectation that his claims of election fraud were true. Indeed, almost everyone around him knew them to be false, and told him as much.

President Donald Trump had no reasonable expectation that his claims of election fraud were true.

One by one, administration officials and Republican election lawyers testified that the supposed irregularities Trump and his allies fixated on werent irregularities at all. The election was not close, as GOP election attorney Ben Ginsberg recalled. States like Michigan and Pennsylvania were not host to measurable election fraud certainly not anything that would change the results in those states. Indeed, former Attorney General Bill Barr found the claims made by Trump loyalists, like those in Dinesh D'Souzas film allegedly uncovering a massive plot to rig the 2020 election, 2,000 Mules, laughable (which is to say, he literally laughed at them during his deposition).

The committee presented a damning fact pattern, which is perhaps why Republicans who are invested in downplaying the events of Jan. 6 did not address that fact pattern. For the most part, Republicans who seek to undermine the salience of the committees proceedings or delegitimize the committee altogether have settled on three avenues of attack. All of which are unconvincing.

Viewers of Mondays hearing were privy to few new revelations about the events leading up to what occurred on the day the 2020 election results were certified. Thats partly because the committee committed itself to re-establishing what it had already alleged during its first hearing on Thursday night. Broadcast to the nation in prime time and capturing the attention of some 20 million viewers, that hearing did provide the public with new insight into how the attack on the Capitol unfolded.

The committees leaders alleged on Thursday night (and subsequently emphasized on Monday) that Trump acted with malice to incite a mob around claims of election fraud he had no reason to believe were true and, indeed, likely knew to be false. They found that organized insurrectionist groups functioned as shock troops ahead of the mob that ransacked the Capitol. The committees members alleged that the president abdicated his constitutional duties to protect the legislature against the founding charters domestic enemies, and they claimed that elected members of Congress sought presidential pardons for their role in the events leading up to the attack.

This brings us to the three avenues of attack. Republicans first objection to Thursday nights proceedings took shape even before the first hearing: The committee was going to be an unserious, glitzy production. We would be forced to witness what Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., demeaned as a Hollywood-paid political advertisement for the Democratic Party. They moved this thing to prime time. They hired a producer to put it on, he said. This is not a fact-finding mission. But at the outset of proceedings, led by the somnolent Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., it became clear that we were not privy to an overproduced spectacle.

At that point, Republicans predisposed to attacking the committee shifted to insisting that this sober, unadorned inquest was too languid for prime time. [I]f the Democrats wanted a flashy, compelling, engaging beginning to the hearing, they are failing miserably, former Trump administration official Mick Mulvaney remarked. But even Mulvaney later conceded that the video presentation of the riots was stunning and powerful. In sum, the hearings interposed prosecutorial dispassion with galvanizing and dramatic visuals. If there was a sweet spot to hit, that was it.

The second Republican objection to these proceedings centered on the notion that this was a one-sided affair. All the lawmakers on the dais, regardless of their partisan affiliations, were of the same mind when it came to what happened on that fateful day. True enough, but thats not because there are no alternative views to express about what happened on Jan. 6. It is because this is what Republicans in Congress wanted.

As the trauma of the days events faded and Republican voters regrouped around the partisan imperative to absolve Trump of blame for any of it, a 2021 Morning Consult survey published about six months after the insurrection found that the rank-and-file GOP had begun convincing themselves of a series of fictions. The poll found that Republican voters increasingly blamed President Joe Biden more for the attack on the Capitol than they did Trump, and that the insurrectionists were not ideologically aligned with the American right. These voters and their representatives in Congress didnt want clarity; they wanted to move on from this episode with their preferred ambiguities intact. That sentiment led Republicans in the legislature to nix what would have been a more judicious, bipartisan inquiry conducted independently of Congress.

Republican voters increasingly blamed President Joe Biden more for the attack on the Capitol than they did Trump.

Republicans knew at the time that the alternative to a blue-ribbon commission of the sort that investigated the 9/11 attacks was a partisan committee that would be established by a simple majority vote of House Democrats. That is, in fact, their desired alternative. The GOPs apparent strategy was to close off every method of independent inquiry so that the one that remained could be denounced as a partisan spectacle. It is, therefore, no surprise that this committee came under attack for its partisan makeup; that was the GOPs preference.

Ah, the GOP will say, but what about the efforts by the Republican minority in the House to appoint pro-Trump Republicans to the committee? Initially, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tried to appoint two members to the committee Reps. Jim Banks Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio who were summarily rejected by Speaker Nancy Pelosi. That led McCarthy to pull the rest of the conferences appointees (save conscience-driven members like Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming, despite the fatal blow their participation has or likely will deal to their political careers). This brings us to the GOPs last objection to the committees preceding: Everything it uncovered was previously known.

All. Old. News, insisted the House Judiciary Committee GOP, which Jordan leads. Unless Jordan was secretly deposing Trump administration officials, whose sworn testimony was presented for the first time to the public on June 9, he likely did not know the extent to which Trump was being regularly disabused of the notion that there was significant election fraud or that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was told to cover up the extent to which then-Vice President Mike Pence had simply assumed the powers of the presidency that the president himself had abdicated. And yet, this Clintonian method of dismissing new revelations as somehow dated, marking anyone surprised by them as out-of-touch rubes, is effective. After all, who wants to be thought of as out of the loop?

This tactic has the disadvantage of competing against genuine news. We did not know for certain that, as Cheney said, Donald Trump placed no call to any element of the United States government to instruct that the Capitol be defended, making no order to deploy the National Guard or contact federal law enforcement. We did not know that Republican lawmakers sought pre-emptive presidential pardons for their role in the days violent events. We did not know that Trump said, according to Cheneys direct quotes, that Trump reacted to the chants of hang Mike Pence by saying, Maybe our supporters have the right idea and that Pence deserves it. We did not know the number of occasions in which White House Counsel Pat Cipollone threatened to resign along with his team, which Jared Kushner described as whining.

Republicans cannot argue with the fact pattern the committee presented to the public, so theyre reduced to table-pounding. That behavior resonates only with those on the right who have already convinced themselves this investigation is a witch hunt. That describes the majority of Republicans, to be sure, but not even an overwhelming one, if polling is to be believed, and it applies to no other American partisan affiliation.

Republicans who continue to oppose an inquiry into that horrible day are reduced to shouting down the inquirers. But there is no decibel level they can achieve sufficient to drown out the truth. The facts speak for themselves.

Excerpt from:
Day 2 of the Jan. 6 hearings keep the GOP on the defensive - MSNBC

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A large majority of voters say the economy is in bad shape. Two-thirds are pessimistic about conditions. Gas and grocery prices are a major problem for most families. And a growing number of voters feel they are losing ground financially.

Thats the grim backdrop for the upcoming midterm elections, according to the latest Fox News national survey.

Forty-seven percent feel they are falling behind financially, up 20 points compared to last June. Some 42% are holding steady, while only 10% are getting ahead.

The Personal Finance Poll (Fox News)

Eight-two percent of voters rate the economy negatively, including 57% who describe it as poor -- the highest in a decade.

Condition of Economy Poll (Fox News)

When asked to offer a more general assessment of their economic mood, 65% say they feel pessimistic. Thats an 18-point increase since last year, and up 30 points from four years ago.

Nine in 10 report the cost of food and gas are a problem for their family. That includes majorities who say current grocery (55%) and gas prices (67%) are a "major" problem. For voters in households earning less than $50,000 annually, nearly three-quarters call gas prices a major problem (72%). And by a 50-32% margin, more voters say President Bidens policies are responsible for current gas prices than blame Russian President Putins war with Ukraine.

The Problem for your Family Poll (Fox News)

Overall, 41% say inflation will be most important to their vote for Congress. Thats about four times as many as say guns (12%) and abortion (10%). Next, its border security (7%), followed by climate change and crime (5% each), election integrity and voting rights (4% each), coronavirus (3%), and foreign policy (1%).

MEDIA, DEMOCRATS DOWNPLAYED INFLATION AND GAS PRICES, GOT FORECASTS WRONG: WINNING ECONOMY

The top election issues for Democrats are inflation (27%), guns (20%), and abortion (12%). For Republicans, its mostly about inflation (53%), and to a much lesser degree, border security (12%). Same story among independents, as the largest number say inflation (43%), and far fewer abortion (10%) and guns (10%).

Voters see Democrats as better at handling the issues of climate change (by 15 points), abortion (D+8), voting rights (D+6), election integrity (D+3), and coronavirus (D+3).

Democrats Handle Better Poll (Fox News)

The Republican issue advantages are larger and, importantly, on the top issue. They are preferred on inflation (R+19 points), border security (R+19), crime (R+13), and foreign policy (R+8).

Republicans handle better Poll (Fox News)

It is more evenly divided on preservation of American democracy (R+1), and neither party has an edge on gun policy. In 2018, the last time Fox asked this gun policy question, more voters trusted Democrats to handle the issue by a 3-point margin.

The Republican advantage on inflation comes mainly from a 30-point preference among independents. Some 17% of Democrats also say the GOP is better on the issue. Yet the highest defection among Democrats, 19%, is on border security.

Similar numbers of Republicans trust Democrats more on climate change (18%) and abortion (15%).

About equal numbers of Democrats (44%) and Republicans (47%) say they feel more enthused to vote this year than usual.

"This poll shows that the expected overturning of Roe and the increased focus on gun policy creates some openings for Democratic candidates that may not have been there before," says Democratic pollster Chris Anderson, whose firm Beacon Research conducts the Fox News survey with Republican pollster Daron Shaw.

"These issues provide concrete reasons for some voters who are disillusioned by Biden and discouraged by inflation to care about supporting Democratic congressional candidates."

The generic ballot test shows voters prefer the Republican candidate to the Democrat in their House district by 47-44%. That is well within the surveys margin of sampling error. The GOP candidate was up by 7 points in April and by 2 points in March.

Fox News modeling estimates the current GOP 3-point edge would produce a 23-seat gain.

FED RATE HIKE WILL HAVE DEVASTATING IMPACT ON CONSUMERS, FORMER HOME DEPOT CEO WARNS

"In historical terms, if the GOP picks up roughly two dozen seats it would be about average for the out-party in a midterm," says Shaw. "However, 2020 Republican gains in the House and pro-Democratic gerrymandering significantly constrain what is possible in 2022, such that some statistical models estimate a 23-seat swing would be comparable to winning 50+ seats in a normal midterm. In other words, given the context of 2022, a Democratic loss of two dozen seats would be -- to paraphrase former President Obama, a shellacking."

In June 2018, four years ago, President Trumps job rating was negative by 6 points (45-51%), and the generic ballot had Democrats ahead by 9 points (48-39%). The Democrats ultimately gained 41 seats that year.

Bidens current job rating is negative by 14 points: 43% approve and 57% disapprove. Thats his poorest performance to date and a reversal from last June when his ratings were at a record high 56-43% (+13 points, June 2021). Hes at a new low of 80% approval among Democrats, down from a high of 95% in April 2021.

Biden Job Rating ((Fox News))

His ratings on issues are worse. Hes underwater by 48 points on inflation (23% approve, 71% disapprove), by 38 points on the economy generally (29-67%), by 27 points on guns (33-60%), by 23 points on border security (35-58%), and by 10 points on Russias invasion of Ukraine (42-52%).

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Poll-pourri

Seven in 10 think it is important for Congress and the Justice Department to investigate the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, including 50% who say its very important. The House Select Committee has been investigating the attack for over a year and had its first televised hearings June 9. The poll finds virtually all Democrats (95%) and most independents (70%) think the probe is important. Among Republicans, 48% say important, 49% not important.

The Jan 6. Importance Poll (Fox News)

Voters are unhappy with Congress, as just 21% approve, while 72% disapprove -- the lowest marks for lawmakers in over two years.

CLICK HERE FOR TOPLINE AND CROSSTABS.

Conducted June 10-13, 2022 under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News Poll includes interviews with 1,002 registered voters nationwide who were randomly selected from a national voter file and spoke with live interviewers on both landlines and cellphones. The total sample has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Fox News Victoria Balara contributed to this report.

See the original post here:
Fox News Poll: More voters put trust in Republicans to handle inflation, crime - Fox News

Democrats say President Biden needs to stop calling some Republicans rational as he did last month, and instead call out the GOP for holding up key policy issues including gun control.

They say Bidens views on the goodwill of Republicans are antiquated and that it ultimately undermines their partys strategy in an election year.

Biden and Democratic leadership have a fundamentally different mentality about how to win, said Democratic strategist Christy Setzer. They think its about appealing to the middle and showing that were reasonable and can play nicely even with intemperate people.

Maybe thats how you win in a fair fight on the merits, but we havent had that game for a long, long time, Setzer added. Now, they need to show how insane the GOP is as compared to the majority of Americans who want, for example, responsible gun ownership, who want to outright ban AR-15s. Were the only rational ones left.

Speaking to reporters last month about the ongoing gun control talks on Capitol Hill, Biden singled out Republicans, saying they could be helpful in the process.

I consider McConnell a rational Republican. I mean, Cornyn is as well, the president said of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), both of whom he served alongside in the upper chamber. I think theres a recognition on their part that things cant continue like this.

When he went on ABCs Jimmy Kimmel Live earlier this week, Biden paid yet another compliment to McConnell.

Ive always had a straight relationship with the majority, the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, hes a guy that when he says something, he means it, Biden told Kimmel. I disagree with a lot of what he says, but he means it.

But Democrats are taking issue with that bipartisan strategy.

On the one hand, I get what hes trying to do in that he doesnt want to unnecessarily box Republicans in, said Democratic strategist Jim Manley, who served as a senior aide to the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)

But the idea that he goes on Jimmy Kimmel and calls McConnell his good friend is infuriating and indicates once again that he doesnt understand how much the Republican Party has changed since he left the Senate, Manley added.

I have no idea whether he believes it or not but Sen. McConnell is no ones friend and the Republican Party has no interest in helping him to legislate.

Manley said Biden should have learned his lesson from the Obama era, when Republicans sought to block the former presidents legislative priorities at every turn.

Whats especially infuriating is as vice president, he had a front row seat to Senate Republicans trying to undermine Obamas presidency, Manley added. Its sheer madness.

Another strategist agreed.

Its not that he wishes we could go back to a better time, or doesnt like calling out Republicans by name versus trying to negotiate, its does he actually believe theyre trying to help him? Because then its a much larger strategic problem, said one Democratic strategist.

This is history repeating itself, the strategist said. Obama thought they could deal, this gave McConnell the power to intentionally delay and kill stuff knowing the blowback would be on Obama who promised to make the place work again.

When Obama finally realized that and whipped out his pen, his numbers shot back up again, the strategist added.

Democrats have grown increasingly frustrated with Biden in recent months, as issues including record-high inflation and soaring gas prices continue to dominate the news cycle with little end in sight.

The Democrats worry that Biden has appearedflat-footedon the issues, including the recent shortage of baby formula, and have urged him to be more proactive.

Polls also indicate that Americans have lost patience with Biden.

An NPR/PBS/Marist College poll out on Thursday showed Biden with the lowest approval rating since the start of his administration at 38 percent. A Quinnipiac University poll which also came out this week revealed that Biden has a 33 percent approval rating.

But some Democrats say Biden needs all the options available to him, even if that means telegraphing his relationship with Republicans, an element that helped catapult him to the White House when he touted his history in the Senate and his long-standing friendships with those across the aisle during his presidential campaign.

Everyone in the political ecosystem has a role and the presidents role is to keep options and pathways open, said Joel Payne, the Democratic strategist. By definition Mitch McConnell needs to be one of those pathways.

That does not mean that others cannot use sharper language or sharper descriptors for McConnell but the president needs to be able to maintain the flexibility to work with Republicans, Payne said.

When he appeared on Kimmels show this week, Biden acknowledged that the Republican Party had changed in recent years.

This is not your fathers Republican Party, he told the late-night host. This is a MAGA party, a very different Republican Party and you find people who are worried, I believe, that if they vote for rational gun policy, theyre gonna be primaried and theyre going to lose in a hard-right Republican Party.

But Democrats say that kind of dialogue isnt enough.

He needs to say, This is who we are, and this is who they are, the strategist said. And I mean completely spell out who they are.

Read the original:
Democrats: Biden must drop the word rational when talking about Republicans - The Hill

If anyone thought that the Jan. 6 committee was going to confine itself to exposing the actions Donald Trump and his accomplices undertook to overturn the election of 2020,today's public hearingwill set them straight. The committee is going straight after the Big Lie itself.

While a scheduled appearance by Trump's 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien today was canceled "due to a family emergency," his lawyer will still make a statement on the record. Meanwhile, former Fox Newspolitical editor Chris Stirewalt, GOP election lawyer Ben Ginsberg, former U.S. Attorney for North Georgia B.J. Pak, who abruptly quit his position in Atlanta during Trump's quest to overturn the election, and former Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt are all set to testify today. All of them will testify about the truth of the 2020 election and Trump's knowledge of that truth. Every one of them is a Republican.

It is a smart strategy to tell this story through Republicans. It should quell some of the mistrust that's been sown by Trump and his allies over the fact that the committee only has two GOP members after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy refused to agree to the bipartisan independent commission and pulled all of his members from the committee when he was not allowed to put Trump's personal henchmen on the panel. Republicans have since sought to smear committee Vice Chairman Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinsinger of Illinois, both Republicans, as traitors and sell-outs. So whatever credibility the two had to persuade rank and file Republicans is gone. Independents probably don't know what to think.

RELATED:2022 GOP primaries prove that MAGA is now bigger than Donald Trump

Having something on the record from both an important Trump campaign insider about what Trump was told about the election results and a respected Republican election lawyer like Ginsberg testify aboutthe integrity of the voteis harder to ignore. Stirewalt worked for Fox News, the flagship Trump network, and was fired for calling the election for Biden after Trump and his rabid fans had a fit over it. He can testify tothe accuracy of the datathey used to call the election.Trump forced Pak to resignwhen he found no evidence of massive voter fraud in Georgia, andSchmidt was the lone Republicanon the Philadelphia election board and was hounded out of the job when he attested to the integrity of the vote count. Both of them can testify that there was no voter fraud in their jurisdictions.

I'm sure Trump will say they are all Republicans In Name Only and not to be believed, but for at least a few GOP voters it must be a little bit difficult to buy thatallofthese Republicans are liars.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Politico recentlyreportedon a study done by researchers at the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin who interviewed 56 people who believed the election was stolen to get an idea why they think so. Perhaps surprisingly, they found that quite a few were not stuck in "tightly sealed, right-wing echo chambers," and a majority "did not seem to subscribe to multiple conspiracy theories." Instead, some believed that Trump's rally sizes indicated that he couldn't have lost the election and that the "visuals" they saw on election night in which the vote count changed as more votes were tallied was suspicious. Further, Trump's portrayal of himself as a victim made them believe that "actors on the left would go to extreme and illegal lengths to see that he was out of office." The researchers suggest that the news media should change the way they report election results but I think that misses the point: Trump primed them to doubt the election results long before it was held.

Trump is the one who made the case that rally sizes indicate that he couldn't possibly have lost the election. (This is silly, of course, because the campaign happened during the pandemic and Joe Biden made the prudent decision not to hold super spreader events and kill his own voters.) And a week before the election, Jonathan Swan of Axiosreportedthat Trump was telling associates that he planned to declare victory on election night if it looked like he was "ahead" knowing that mail-in votes, which they expected would be heavily Democratic, would be counted later. Trump told Swan:

"I think it's a terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election. I think it's a terrible thing when states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long period of time after the election is over." He continued: "I think it's terrible that we can't know the results of an election the night of the election. ... We're going to go in the night of, as soon as that election's over, we're going in with our lawyers. We don't want to have Pennsylvania, where you have a political governor, a very partisan guy. ... We don't want to be in a position where he's allowed, every day, to watch ballots come in. See if we can only find 10,000 more ballots."

(That last quote is rich considering thathe'sthe guy who called up the Georgia Secretary of State and asked him to"find" 11,780 votes.)

RELATED:Cult expert Steven Hassan sees 95% chance of worsening pro-Trump violence

Trump and his henchmen were preparing to challenge the validity of the election and suggest that vote that were counted later we illegitimate from the very beginning. Those Republican voters may not know why they were suspicious, but if they had been listening to Trump for months leading up to the election it's not hard to figure it out.

In a bit of hopeful news, the researchers did find that some of these people might be open to new information. One said "a lot of people were expressing uncertainty as they were sharing their thoughts with me, and they were saying that this felt so complicated to them." Respondents also didn't feel as if they had anyone they could trust to help them sort out the questions they still had but were interested in learning more, researchers noted. If a few of them take the initiative to tune in to the hearing today, they aren't going to see a typical partisan food fight but rather a sober inquiry featuring cooperating Republican witnesses laying out the facts. And what they will learn is that Donald Trump's story about the stolen election is a Big Lie and everything else that happened was a fraud to illegitimately hold on to power.

The committee starting with Trump's lies about the stolen election is necessary to understand everything that came next. He was laying the groundwork long before even one vote was cast. Trump knew he would never concede no matter what. In fact, he told us so all the way back in 2016. Why would wehave ever thought otherwise?

See the original post:
Bigger than Trump: Republicans will expose how the Big Lie took control of the GOP - Salon

Former President Donald Trump wields a powerful spell over Illinois Republicans with a majority declaring him as their top choice for the White House in 2024 and even more believing legally he should still be there.

More than two-thirds of the states GOP voters believe Trump actually won the 2020 election. And nearly nine out of ten still like the combative former president.

Those are some of the conclusions of a new Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ Poll that takes the political pulse of a state GOP eagerly trying to regain its political footing in Springfield but facing a split between its rising Trump-allegiant wing and its longtime establishment wing seeking to avoid being clipped.

Trump lost Illinois by 17 percentage points in 2020. But Republicans here arent bailing on him, despite that reelection drubbing, his double impeachment or bipartisan congressional hearings aimed at highlighting his bellicose role in the fatal Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.

President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a rally Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington

Those undeniable and historic stains on Trumps record seem virtually unnoticed by some of the Republicans polled by the Sun-Times and WBEZ.

In fact, its almost like none of it happened or matters. Large numbers of Illinois Republicans still put Trump on a pedestal alongside arguably the partys most revered president of the 20th Century, Ronald Reagan, a product of downstate Tampico.

One of the big stories from this poll is it really shows Trumps continued hold on Republican primary voters, said Jim Williams, a polling analyst with Public Policy Polling, the North Carolina-based pollster that conducted the Sun-Times/WBEZ survey on June 6 and 7.

Nationally, Trumps grip on the Republican Party has come under question, particularly after he whiffed in his high-profile primary endorsements in Georgia, Nebraska, Idaho and North Carolina, where he failed to secure reelection for controversial Rep. Madison Cawthorn.

But the Land of Lincoln is solid Trump turf for Illinois Republicans, the Sun-Times/WBEZ Poll suggests.

I know theres been some speculation over the past several months as these primaries have played out whether or not Donald Trump and those Republican primary voters are still in lockstep with each other, Williams said. I think at least on the results of this poll, were seeing a lot of indications that they are.

The survey of 677 likely Republican primary voters also found an overwhelming majority fall into the election-denier category with 67% saying they do not believe the results of the 2020 presidential election were legitimate. Only 18% thought President Joe Biden actually won, while 15% were unsure.

Thats after more than 60 lawsuits were filed by Trump loyalists in state and federal courts around the country alleging fraud in the 2020 presidential election and all failed to yield any evidence to prove it. In February 2021, a series of election-challenge cases were rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court a court on which Trump placed three justices.

In opening hearings Thursday by the House January 6th committee, recorded testimony from former Attorney General William Barr revealed Trumps loyal Cabinet official calling the former presidents claims of a stolen election b----. Trumps own daughter, Ivanka, said she accepted Barrs assessment that her father lost the election in additional recorded testimony presented by the committee.

Yet, what does the poll suggest Illinois Republicans believe?

The 2020 election was bogus case closed.

I mean, theres multiple, multiple cases of evidence that this was not a fair election, and nobody wanted to look into it. None of the judges wanted to take the case or anything, and its just really sad, said Diana Kint, a 60-year-old homemaker from south suburban Crete who participated in the poll.

Supporters of former President Donald Trump protest on East Higgins Road in October, hours before President Joe Biden was scheduled to speak at a nearby construction site in Elk Grove Village.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file

I think that the reason [Biden] is so unpopular is because nobody wanted him in the first place well not nobody, but you know what Im saying, not enough.

Even though Trumps loss is indisputable, his appeal is off the charts among Republicans statewide 86% view him favorably, according to the poll. And a majority said theyd be more likely to vote for candidates for other offices who had supported him in the past.

Additionally, those answering the poll said the largest group victimized by racism and bigotry is white people, echoing the theme of white grievance that Trump has championed as a candidate and as president.

Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed believed Trump should run again for president in 2024, with 28% suggesting it was time for the party to move on to another candidate.

But other Republicans considered potential presidential candidates would likely have a tough time beating the former president in an Illinois primary.

Just over half of the states GOP voters chose Trump as their choice in a theoretical 2024 Republican primary.

Considering the way everything is turning out now, how Joe Biden was going to be the savior and unifier and thats not happening, I think [Trump] definitely will run, and hell have my support, said Joe Turkos, a 52-year-old South Loop resident who participated in the Sun-Times/WBEZ poll.

Hes probably in my opinion one of the better presidents that weve had at least in my lifetime, said Turkos, who manages a gym and came around and voted for Trump in 2020 after initially supporting Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Aside from Ronald Reagan, I think he was the most effective Republican president because he governed more as a conservative, his America First platform. Its great. I liked how he was tough on China. He was tough on Russia. He was tough on Iran.

The poll found Trumps next closest rival among the states GOP voters is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom 23% identified as their top choice for president. Trumps past running mate, former Vice President Mike Pence, drew support from only 6% of Illinois Republicans.

Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, Cruz, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio drew only single-digit support as top 2024 presidential candidates in the poll. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley received no support.

Thats in contrast to a presidential election straw poll conducted last weekend at the Western Conservative Summit in Colorado that showed DeSantis topping Trump, 71% to 67.7%. The next closest was Cruz with 28%. DeSantis also topped Trump in the same poll last year, in a convention dubbed the largest gathering of conservatives in the Western United States.

Those results notwithstanding, the former president still carries robust approval ratings among Illinois Republicans, the poll found.

Eighty-six percent said they either had a very or somewhat favorable opinion of Trump with only 12% indicating any kind of unfavorable view. And the majority of those voters really liked Trump 58% viewed him very favorably.

Biden has just totally destroyed our economy, our border, pretty much everything else hes touched, said Joseph Sikora, a 60-year-old semi-retired home builder from downstate Collinsville, who participated in the poll.

Thats enough for Sikora to once again root for a Trump comeback.

A deeper look at Trumps popularity among Illinois Republicans shows he continues to have what can only be seen as massive support in all corners of the state with his strongest showing in the collar counties, where 88% view him favorably. Among downstate and suburban Cook Republicans, his favorability stands at 86% and in Chicago at 74%.

Whether that popularity rubs off on other candidates has been a hit-or-miss proposition. Trump has mostly stayed out of Illinois politics since leaving the White House, though he has endorsed downstate Rep. Mary Miller in her primary against fellow Republican Rep. Rodney Davis.

In the Republican gubernatorial primary, state Sen. Darren Bailey has made no secret of his efforts to curry favor with the ex-president, visiting Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for a Miller fundraiser in late April. No endorsement has materialized, but that hasnt seemed to harm Bailey, who is up 15 percentage points over Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin in the Sun-Times/WBEZ poll.

The same poll also found that Illinois Republicans embraced some of the same white grievance ideology that Trump championed while in the White House.

Illinois GOP voters were asked to identify who suffers the most from racism and bigotry from a list of different segments of the population. Thirty-six percent of respondents chose white people. The next closest groups were African-Americans with 15%, Jews at 8%, Asian Americans and gay, lesbian and transgender people at 4% and Muslims at 2%.

Kint, the Crete homemaker who participated in the poll, attributed those results to the teaching of critical race theory, a concept built around the idea that racism isnt simply the result of personal prejudices but instead something long woven into the law. Several Republican-led states have taken steps to ban critical race theory teaching in public classrooms.

This critical race theory stuff is teaching people that white people are just automatically the bad guys, she said. I have three children. One of them one time came home from public schools, saying, White males are the bane of society or something like that. They teach that stuff in school. She didnt learn that from me.

See the original post here:
Most Illinois Republican voters dont believe Trump really lost in 2020 - Chicago Sun-Times