If, as former President Donald Trump and his backers suggest, Democrats are merely using lawfare to keep Trump from running in 2024, it might be backfiring, according to the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist National Poll.
The poll finds 83% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say Trump should remain in the 2024 presidential race after Trump's arrest last week in Miami on a 37-count federal indictment.
As much as Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents (87%), and full-fledged independent moderates (58%) might want Trump to drop out of the race amid the charges, the Republican voters will have the first saw in the 2024 GOP primary cycle.
"As former President Trump deals with his latest legal woes, Republicans are mostly standing with him, while Democrats are calling for him to exit the 2024 campaign," Marist Institute for Public Opinion Director Lee Miringoff wrote in a statement. "Time will tell if this pattern holds, but for now, Republicans are grounded on where they stand on Trump regardless of these unfolding events."
Trump has argued the lawfare — using the legal system to wage a political war on President Joe Biden's opposition — is nothing more than an "election interference" scheme.
The poll's data might support that claim, because if Biden backers are truly believing their candidate is superior, why wouldn't they want a tarnished Trump to be the GOP nominee against Biden in 2024?
Legal expert Alan Dershowitz shares that narrative frequently on Newsmax, saying he does not want the Biden administration Justice Department to weaponize justice and deprive him of the "right" to be able to "vote against Trump for the third time" in a presidential election.
Despite defending Trump in the Senate impeachment trial, Dershowitz has long told Newsmax he remains a liberal Democrat who votes against Trump — as American democracy provides.
Trump remains an overwhelming 2-to-1 favorite over the combined rest of the GOP primary field, according to the poll. There are 64% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents backing Trump, compared to just 32% planning to support one of the dozen other candidates in the GOP primary field.
Also, the indictments in both Manhattan County and federal courts have only hardened Trump's base. There are 76% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (76%) with a favorable opinion of Trump, which is up from 68% in the February edition of this poll.
Even if the GOP primary voters are split 50%-50% on whether he did anything wrong, the overwhelming majority (83%) still want to be able to vote for him as the GOP nominee for 2024.
The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll National Poll was conducted June 12-14 among 1,327 American adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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