Republican voters 'would hate' Trump 'if they knew someone like Donald in their daily life': columnist

23 August 2023

Correspondent Tom Nichols of The Atlantic appeared on Wednesday's edition of Bulwark Editor-in-Chief Charlie Sykes' podcast and vented his frustration over the support that former President Donald Trump has among people whom he routinely disparages, Mediaite's Alex Griffing reports.

The conversation took place ahead of the Republican National Committee's first 2024 presidential primary debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where a dozen GOP hopefuls will make their respective cases for why they should be the eventual nominee.

Trump, the party's leader and frontrunner who will not be in attendance, is facing ninety-one state and federal felony charges for allegedly:

Breaching campaign finance laws by "falsifying business records" to pay hush money to women with whom he had affairs;
Illegally absconding with, retaining, and disseminating top-secret White House documents in violation of the Espionage Act;
Obstruction of justice;
Running a racketeering conspiracy to steal Georgia's sixteen Electoral College votes that President Joe Biden won in the 2020 election;
Depriving American citizens of their right to vote through his failed coup to remain in power after Biden defeated him.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to hold office again?

"These people who love Donald Trump, if they knew someone like Donald Trump in their daily life, they would hate him," Nichols said.

"Absolutely," Sykes concurred.

"These are working guys who, you know, Trump walked in and said, 'Hey, I'm stiffing you on your paycheck and I'm going to grab your sister,' these guys would lose their minds. They'd punch him out. But when he does it from a stage, they say, 'That's my guy,'" Nichols lamented.

Sykes added, "Or all the soccer parents out there. We're hearing a lot about parents' rights and how hard it is to raise a kid these days. You know what parent would want Donald Trump to be a role model, you know, in terms of sportsmanship and all of those things. I guess it's the experiment whether you can sort of have a bifurcation, whether or not you can live lives of virtue and responsibility in your personal life and hope that your political positions don't leak out."

Nichols stated that "the founders did not think so, Charlie. The founders made the argument that if you live an unvirtuous private life, you will eventually bleed into an unfortunate public life."

Numerous legal scholars believe that criminal defendant Trump is disqualified from ever holding office again under Section III of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which bars individuals who give aid and comfort to insurrectionists from holding office.

It states:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Griffing notes that "Nichols argued that is now 'gone' and that many elected leaders act as if they 'are playing a game' or on a 'reality TV show' with no care for future generations. He then turned to Trump and made the case that not only is he not decent, but that most of his followers would not actually like to know someone like him in their personal lives."

Listen at this link. Griffing's article is here.

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