As you’ve probably heard by now, Ron DeSantis appears to have no chance whatsoever at winning the Republican nomination for president, thanks to the fact that he’s losing to the twice-impeached, twice-indicted Donald Trump by double-digit points. But in case you were wondering just how badly DeSantis has been faring, a New York Times/Siena College poll released on Monday put the situation in stark relief, with stats that would be extremely funny were we not talking about the prospect of reelection for a guy who incited a literal insurrection.
As the Times notes, basically anyway you look at it, Trump comes out ahead of DeSantis, in addition to every other GOP hopeful:
Among Republicans who described themselves as “very conservative”? Trump scored 65% of the vote to DeSantis’s 15%. Among those who care about fighting the “woke” left, i.e. DeSantis’s signature issue? Sixty-one percent backed Trump to DeSantis’s 36%. The candidate seen as having the ability to “get things done”? Trump: 67%, DeSantis: 22%. In one of the saddest results of the poll, 54% of voters said Trump was “fun” to DeSantis’s womp-womp 16%. Correction: This was the saddest poll result:
That’s right: Among the people who think Trump is a full-on criminal, DeSantis still loses.
Of course, should Trump actually be convicted of any of the crimes he’s been charged with and sentenced to years in prison, he’d have a difficult—but not impossible!—time winning and serving a second term. And speaking of charges, it appears that more may be in the offing in the near future. Per The Washington Post:
As the Post notes, “Willis has strongly hinted for months that she will seek multiple indictments in the case, using Georgia’s expansive anti-racketeering statutes that allow prosecutors not only to charge in-state wrongdoing but to use activities in other states to prove criminal intent in Georgia. In court filings, Willis has described her probe as an investigation of ‘multi-state, coordinated efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 elections in Georgia and elsewhere.’”
In addition to potential charges out of Georgia, Trump is likely to be indicted by special counsel Jack Smith in connection with the Justice Department’s investigation into his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, and the attack on the Capitol that followed. That’s on top of the charges Trump was already indicted with in June related to his handling of classified documents—which were expanded last week, as well as a criminal case brought in April by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Meanwhile, if anyone was thinking an actual prison sentence would stop the former guy from running, think again. On Friday, in an interview with a conservative talk show host, Trump doubled down on his pledge to never drop out of the race, even if he’s behind bars.
On the other hand…
According to Ron DeSantis, the constant barrage of insults from Trump and others means he’s still a contender. “If you’re up by so much, you would not be worried about anybody else,” DeSantis told reporters on Sunday. “So the fact that I’m taking the incoming from all of these people, not just him, but a lot of the other candidates, a lot of media—that shows people know that I’m a threat.”
Chris Christie not sure how many different ways he can say it
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Area Republican: Trump is a “crybaby” who will lose the GOP nomination and won’t STFU about it when he does, but will I support him if he wins? Yes, of course. Why wouldn’t I?
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