During an MSNBC panel discussion on Donald Trump allowing himself to be influenced by far-right characters, which had a marked influence on his Tuesday night debate performance, contributor Ed Luce suggested the former president has quickly become his own worse enemy.Speaking with the hosts on "Morn...
What would happen if he did drop out? Have we ever had a presidential election that went uncontested?
It’s probably too late to change candidates to a new one, so they’re stuck with Vance. Their best hope would be to parachute in someone charismatic and with appeal to a plausible “silent majority” of conservative-leaning voters à la Reagan, or at least someone who can keep his skinsuit on properly when in public. Given the way that from 2016, if not the Tea Party era, onwards, Republicans have either been primaried out of politics for being “RINOs” or else drunk deeply of the Kool-Aid and embraced the spiral of radicalism to keep up, there aren’t many plausible candidates who haven’t abased themselves.
So the Republicans would be thoroughly screwed, at least if they didn’t have the Electoral College, the Supreme Court, gerrymandering, voter suppression, the backing of billionaires and all the dirty tricks Putin and Musk between them can muster. As it stands, they may have to fight dirtier than they planned, with uncertain results.
I would agree with your thinking that it’s probably too late - look at RFK, he narrowly got his name off of North Carolina ballots, they have to reprint a fuck ton of them.
He wasn’t so lucky in Michigan, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled he must stay on the ballot.
The republicans would have to find someone new, really quickly.
Trump will never drop out though.
Can they though? RFK has been forced to stay on ballots in a few states because it’s too late to drop out. States like MI is one and it would be a automatic win for Harris since ballots can’t change.
I believe from memory (and I’d have to research this myself again) that while the ballots wouldn’t change, whoever the GOP has running in his place would win the spot. You can’t just win an election because your opponent disappears.
Each state would have to decide for themselves how it works.
And yes, candidates win all the time due to their opposition dropping out, dying, etc etc. But TMK, has never happened with a presidential election.
That sounds premature.
Oh look what you did: you made Kevin McCarthy cry. I hope you’re proud of yourself.
Well done!
But the cheeseburgers could catch up to him at any moment. He’s old AF and looks to be in terrible shape.
That would be sooo awesome.
Believe it or not, he’s lost a lot of weight in the past year. He must be laying off the Big Macs (and/or downing amphetamines)
GLP1’s working on a lot of people.
Even if true, I refuse to believe it was intentional.
He doesn’t look like he has lost any weight.
He does to me. I first noticed it last month, then I googled it and people had first started talking about it last spring. There is a lot of speculation he’s on Ozempic, but it’s also possible he just learned how to shut his pie hole.
Could be stress from the felony cases. Hopefully he dies of it.
I would LOVE to see Trump drop out for whatever reason, and then the GOP has a vote like they did for the speaker of the house to see who takes his place. The drama of all the wackos that 1/2 of even the GOP worst dislike, mixed with all the opportunist bottom feeders, all trying to battle it out to lead the party in the new power vacuum of “yes men/women” would be just pay-per-view level entertainment.
Or if he doesn’t drop out, it will still be worth watching Trump getting weaker and weaker while the vultures are circling.
I think this is what they’re hoping for: Trump holds on until the election, then kicks the bucket a month into office so Vance, a far more naked and coherent authoritarian, can take his place and start signing whatever he wants, with little to no fanfare or recognition because he’s happy to just have power.
He could drop out, but his name would still be on the ballots like RFK Jr. Rs would have to run a write-in campaign, and that’s asking a lot from the average republican voter
I guess JD Couchfucker would take over. So, yeah, pretty close to uncontested. Even the crazies don’t like him.