Former president Donald Trump on Saturday night delivered the exact message some Republicans have been eager to hear: President Biden and the Democratic Party are incompetent, and Republicans need to turn out to vote in the midterm elections to take back majorities in Congress.
But that was only a slice of Trump’s pitch during his campaign rally 40 miles north of Houston.
The former president also dangled pardons for Jan. 6 rioters and urged his throngs of supporters to descend on New York, Washington or Atlanta for street protests if he is convicted of crimes in ongoing investigations, intimations of support for violence that within hours prompted questions to other Republicans about where they stood. As he spoke approvingly of the violent effort to overthrow the 2020 election, Trump also spent most of his speech complaining, falsely, that the election was stolen from him, a line of argument that Republicans have publicly urged him to drop.
ADVERTISING
Trump may be out of office, and not yet an official candidate for president in 2024, but he still represents a conundrum for his party. The former president retains an unchallenged grip over the base of the party. In most states, separation from Trump’s desires and policies is a sure path to defeat in a Republican primary and risks lower GOP turnout in a general election.
The ‘Green Bay Sweep’: A Trump adviser’s plot to overturn the 2020 election
Trump adviser Peter Navarro published a book, and in it he unveiled the plan to keep Trump in office. (Monica Rodman, Sarah Hashemi/The Washington Post)
But Trump’s continued effort to downplay the events of Jan. 6 while stoking agitation for future violence risks alienating the independent and moderate voters Republicans desperately need and think they are set to gain in November.
Trump’s suggestion of protests related to investigations into him represented his fiercest attempt yet to rally public opinion on the probes to his side.
“If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protest we have ever had in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere because our country and our elections are corrupt,” he said, ticking off cities in which his business or presidential behavior is under investigation.
The three prosecutors investigating Trump — New York Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis — are Black.
For Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who is facing a primary challenge from the right on March 1, the challenge was on full display here. In a less than six-minute speech before the former president took the stage, Abbott said Trump’s name more than two dozen times. And still, he was greeted with scattered boos and chants of “RINO” — Republican in name only — as some voters expressed their view that he has not sufficiently implemented Trump’s agenda, particularly on immigration.
Calen Wall, a volunteer for one of Abbott’s Republican challengers, Don Huffines, was among those who booed Abbott, faulting him for not taking stronger action on the border.
“Abbott is finally being primaried by a true conservative,” said Wall, 40, of Arlington, Tex. “It’s an election year, so Abbott is doing everything Huffines has been saying he would do.”
On Sunday morning, just hours after Trump raised the prospect of pardoning those charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection, other Republican candidates were faced with the fallout of his remarks. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who disappointed Republicans by eschewing a Senate campaign to run for reelection but who is believed to have White House aspirations, said pardons for the Capitol rioters should not be considered.
“Look, the folks that were part of the riots and, frankly, the assault on the U.S. Capitol have to be held accountable,” he said Sunday morning on CNN. “There’s a rule of law. I don’t care whether you were part of the burning — burning cities in antifa in 2020, you were storming the Capitol in 2021. Everybody needs to be held fairly accountable … That’s part of leadership.”
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), speaking on CBS, called Trump’s pardon remarks “inappropriate.”
“I don’t want to send any signal that it was okay to defile our Capitol,” he said. “I want to deter people who did that on Jan. 6. … I hope they go to jail and get the book thrown at them because they deserve it.”
The scene outside the U.S. Capitol after Trump supporters breached the building on Jan. 6, 2021. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)
At his rallies in the past, Trump has not always delivered the enthusiastic endorsement of Republican candidates that many in his party desire. He will mention candidates who have his “complete and total” support, but he often spends most of his time airing grievances and riling up his base.
On Saturday night, he gave lengthy shout-outs to the tribe of Republican officials who joined him at the rally and laid out the party’s midterm argument. He denounced Biden’s handling of foreign policy from Afghanistan to Russia to China. He questioned the president’s mental acuity, challenging him to take a cognitive test. He blamed Democrats for inflation and attacked vaccine and mask mandates. And on immigration, one of the most salient issues for Republicans in Texas, Trump said that “Biden’s complete abdication of duty is getting untold numbers of Americans killed.”
But that was only a slice of Trump’s pitch during his campaign rally 40 miles north of Houston.
The former president also dangled pardons for Jan. 6 rioters and urged his throngs of supporters to descend on New York, Washington or Atlanta for street protests if he is convicted of crimes in ongoing investigations, intimations of support for violence that within hours prompted questions to other Republicans about where they stood. As he spoke approvingly of the violent effort to overthrow the 2020 election, Trump also spent most of his speech complaining, falsely, that the election was stolen from him, a line of argument that Republicans have publicly urged him to drop.
ADVERTISING
Trump may be out of office, and not yet an official candidate for president in 2024, but he still represents a conundrum for his party. The former president retains an unchallenged grip over the base of the party. In most states, separation from Trump’s desires and policies is a sure path to defeat in a Republican primary and risks lower GOP turnout in a general election.
The ‘Green Bay Sweep’: A Trump adviser’s plot to overturn the 2020 election
Trump adviser Peter Navarro published a book, and in it he unveiled the plan to keep Trump in office. (Monica Rodman, Sarah Hashemi/The Washington Post)
But Trump’s continued effort to downplay the events of Jan. 6 while stoking agitation for future violence risks alienating the independent and moderate voters Republicans desperately need and think they are set to gain in November.
Trump’s suggestion of protests related to investigations into him represented his fiercest attempt yet to rally public opinion on the probes to his side.
“If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protest we have ever had in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere because our country and our elections are corrupt,” he said, ticking off cities in which his business or presidential behavior is under investigation.
The three prosecutors investigating Trump — New York Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis — are Black.
For Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who is facing a primary challenge from the right on March 1, the challenge was on full display here. In a less than six-minute speech before the former president took the stage, Abbott said Trump’s name more than two dozen times. And still, he was greeted with scattered boos and chants of “RINO” — Republican in name only — as some voters expressed their view that he has not sufficiently implemented Trump’s agenda, particularly on immigration.
Calen Wall, a volunteer for one of Abbott’s Republican challengers, Don Huffines, was among those who booed Abbott, faulting him for not taking stronger action on the border.
“Abbott is finally being primaried by a true conservative,” said Wall, 40, of Arlington, Tex. “It’s an election year, so Abbott is doing everything Huffines has been saying he would do.”
On Sunday morning, just hours after Trump raised the prospect of pardoning those charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection, other Republican candidates were faced with the fallout of his remarks. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who disappointed Republicans by eschewing a Senate campaign to run for reelection but who is believed to have White House aspirations, said pardons for the Capitol rioters should not be considered.
“Look, the folks that were part of the riots and, frankly, the assault on the U.S. Capitol have to be held accountable,” he said Sunday morning on CNN. “There’s a rule of law. I don’t care whether you were part of the burning — burning cities in antifa in 2020, you were storming the Capitol in 2021. Everybody needs to be held fairly accountable … That’s part of leadership.”
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), speaking on CBS, called Trump’s pardon remarks “inappropriate.”
“I don’t want to send any signal that it was okay to defile our Capitol,” he said. “I want to deter people who did that on Jan. 6. … I hope they go to jail and get the book thrown at them because they deserve it.”
The scene outside the U.S. Capitol after Trump supporters breached the building on Jan. 6, 2021. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)
At his rallies in the past, Trump has not always delivered the enthusiastic endorsement of Republican candidates that many in his party desire. He will mention candidates who have his “complete and total” support, but he often spends most of his time airing grievances and riling up his base.
On Saturday night, he gave lengthy shout-outs to the tribe of Republican officials who joined him at the rally and laid out the party’s midterm argument. He denounced Biden’s handling of foreign policy from Afghanistan to Russia to China. He questioned the president’s mental acuity, challenging him to take a cognitive test. He blamed Democrats for inflation and attacked vaccine and mask mandates. And on immigration, one of the most salient issues for Republicans in Texas, Trump said that “Biden’s complete abdication of duty is getting untold numbers of Americans killed.”
