(CTN News) – Former President Donald Trump once told his supporters they would grow weary of his victories. That may well be the case this week.
As he attempts to win a non-consecutive second term and pull off a dramatic political comeback, President Joe Biden’s confusing and unpleasant debate performance in Atlanta on Thursday night handed Trump a significant victory at the most critical juncture of the 2024 White House campaign so far.
At a rally on Friday in Virginia, Trump reveled in the debate’s aftermath and connected his remarks to what he saw as the “decline” of both America and his opponent. “This election is a choice between strength and weakness, competence and incompetence, peace and prosperity, war or no war, as every American saw firsthand last night,” Trump said.
Shortly after the debate, the presumed Republican candidate celebrated on social media as he had secured a “big win” when the US Supreme Court ruled that the Justice Department had overreached itself in accusing Capitol rioters on January 6. The day after he attempted to use the discussion to cover up the biggest assault on democracy in modern times, the ex-president won a symbolic triumph with a 6-3 vote.
Legal repercussions may also arise; some academics argue that the decision may limit the scope of Trump’s federal election interference trial, even though special counsel Jack Smith maintains that his case will go unhindered. Lawyers for the former president have already hinted that they plan to try to have the evidence thrown out and the obstruction charges against him dropped.
The court’s ruling was made public before a far more significant case that would directly affect Trump’s illegal activities. The court’s ultimate decision on his broad request for immunity for conduct done while president is anticipated on Monday. Even if the long-awaited decision by the conservative majority court does not immediately limit some components of the special counsel’s prosecution, it may have the impact of dragging Smith’s election interference trial far beyond November’s election if it requires further action in a lower court.
Trump’s year of highs and lows
Given Trump’s contentious belief that he would have nearly unrestricted authority in the Oval Office, effectively placing the presidency above the law, the justices’ assessment of never-before-considered arguments on the limits of executive power is especially important as he looks to return to the White House.
More positive legal news for Trump in Florida came on Thursday when he nominated federal Judge Aileen Cannon, who furthered the pretrial proceedings involving his purported handling of confidential information at his Mar-a-Lago club.
Another of Trump’s criminal indictments won’t go to trial before the election because Cannon handled the case and her many disagreements with Smith’s staff. Similar to the federal election interference case, the papers issue may be dismissed by a second administration’s attorney general, whom Trump would select. Another 2020 election case in Georgia has also been put on hold, partly because of an appeals procedure and controversy sparked by District Attorney Fani Willis’s connection with an appointed prosecutor.
Trump has had a lot of bad weeks this year, particularly after the lengthy hush money trial that saw him become the first former president and front-runner of a major party to be found guilty of a felony. His humiliation intensifies when he appears before Judge Juan Merchan for a sentence in New York on July 11.
It will be only a few days before the former president heads to the Republican National Convention to officially accept his third consecutive presidential nomination, so his forced attendance will perfectly capture his year of highs and lows on the political and personal fronts. It is also anticipated that Trump will introduce his vice presidential candidate at the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, rally.
The election is still four months away; unanticipated incidents and international and domestic problems might change the contest’s outcome during this political period. However, Thursday night’s debate could not have gone much better for Trump, who has been in a dead heat with Biden and has a little advantage in the swing states that will determine the election.
Though it’s too soon to predict how people will react, Democrats are already discouraged and wondering whether Biden should stay on the ticket due to the president’s appalling performance.
Even if Biden can recover, his campaign will never be able to take away from the memories of millions of television watchers who witnessed an old man having difficulty pronouncing words correctly, losing his train of thought, and gaping at Trump with an apparent open mouth in confusion—a more vigorous, if dishonest, figure.
The president is 81 years old, and most Americans believe he is too elderly to serve a second term. The optics of the night and the Republican party support these narratives.
On a night when his torrent of falsehoods and conspiracy theories demonstrated that, if anything, Trump has become more resentful and dangerous to the rule of law since he departed office in disgrace after a tumultuous one-term administration in January 2021, Biden’s difficulties also provided him with a pass.
Had the president performed well in the debate, Trump’s campaign could have suffered irreversible harm. Even though Biden didn’t pass the debate’s vitality test, the former president refrained from playing into Biden’s claims that he is “unhinged” and that something “snapped” in him because of his usually composed conduct in the crucial opening exchanges. Even if the president could expose Trump’s outrageous actions and lies later in the evening, Biden may have lost many votes due to the early acrimony.
Just three years separate Trump and Biden in age, yet Trump often speaks incoherently at campaign appearances. However, surveys indicate that people are less concerned about their age and mental capacity.
Senior Democrats explicitly said on Friday that the election’s reality—a Republican candidate who has already attempted to undermine democracy and may do so again—does not alter just because there was a poor debate. However, Biden must face the harsh reality that his dismal performance will further heighten worries among many voters who find it impossible to see him carrying out a second term that will expire when he is 86.
The Supreme Court delivers another piece of good news for Trump.
The Justice Department went too far by charging hundreds of protesters who rioted at the Capitol with obstruction, the Supreme Court said on Friday in the case from January 6. At least some of those cases will probably be reopened. However, The high court decided that if prosecutors could demonstrate that the rioters were trying to prevent the 2020 election from being certified rather than merely forcing their way inside, charges may still be brought against them. Smith could continue accusing Trump of the same offense because of this nuance.
According to a person who spoke with CNN’s Paula Reid, Trump’s team plans to submit motions to have the obstruction charges against the former president dropped. However, Smith’s argument against the likely GOP candidate is supported by a broader range of incidents and proof than the ones used against the pro-Trump rabble.
However, even if Trump’s team’s latest legal maneuver is successful in postponing the trial via more litigation, it would support his long-term objective of doing so. As things stand, there doesn’t seem to be much likelihood that a jury will hear the case in the next few months unless the high court rejects Trump’s claim of immunity in its entirety next week.
Even the possibility that Trump’s attorneys may reduce his criminal liability, should the election result in a loss and the lawsuit go without incident, could be very useful to the former president.
On Thursday, Cannon said that she would want to see further hearings about Trump’s effort to contest important evidence about the Florida papers issue. She would also let his attorneys cross-examine witnesses regarding the inquiry and the FBI’s 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago for classified materials.
It has been alleged that Cannon has prolonged the matter through many sessions. Some opponents have blamed her inexperience for the delays. Others argue that she is biased towards the president who nominated her. But the court chastised detractors in an 11-page judgment on Thursday.
According to Cannon, “there is a difference between an evidentiary hearing geared to adjudicating the contested factual and legal issues on a given pre-trial motion to suppress” and a “mini-trial” that wastes resources and causes delays. Regarding Trump, Cannon is free to pursue the case for as long as she pleases, particularly if it continues his current upward trend.
