GOP senators on pins and needles while awaiting Trump criminal verdict

21 May 2024

On Monday, May 20, the prosecution in Donald Trump's criminal hush money/falsified business records trial rested its case after testimony from Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney and fixer, concluded. Then, the following day, the defense rested its case following testimony from pro-Trump attorney Robert Costello and Trump's decision not to testify.

The three other criminal indictments that Trump is facing appear unlikely to go to trial before the election, but this trial has moved along at a brisk pace just as Justice Juan Merchan wanted.

Closing arguments from Trump's defense team and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.'s office will be followed by jury deliberations. And it remains to be seen whether the jury will find Trump guilty or not guilty — or if there will be a hung jury.

In an article published on May 21, The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports that Senate Republicans are "nervously anticipating the verdict."

"GOP lawmakers say a failure to secure a conviction would be a major embarrassment for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that would strengthen Trump," Bolton explains. "But they admit they don't know how a conviction would play out, given that between 20 percent and 30 percent of GOP primary voters said they would not see Trump as fit for office if convicted of a felony."

Bolton adds, "GOP senators say Trump's campaign faces a high degree of uncertainty about any fallout resulting from the embarrassing trial.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is among the few Republicans in Congress who is openly saying that giving Trump the 2024 GOP nomination is a huge mistake.

Murkowski told The Hill, "I would have thought that we didn’t even need to go into the trial, we wouldn't even need to get to a guilty verdict — the fact that the Republican nominee would be subject of a trial such as this would have had an impact…. We'll see. I don’t know what to believe anymore. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that so many Republicans still feel that Biden was not properly elected."

According to Sen. Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota), independent voters may have "second thoughts" about voting for Trump if the jury finds him guilty — even those who are critical of President Joe Biden.

Rounds told The Hill, "I think for his strong supporters, I think they're just simply going to look at that and say, 'See? It's not fair.' On the other side, there's people in the middle, there are independents, that are probably looking at this saying, 'I wasn't sure whether I could support him again or not. I don't like what President Biden is doing.' They may have second thoughts."

Sen. Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) also weighed in on the effect that a guilty verdict could have on the 2024 presidential election.

Durbin, a scathing Trump critic, told The Hill, "Two out of 3 (voters) say that if he is convicted of a felony that would affect the way they're going to vote. I can understand that."

Read The Hill's full report at this link.

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