The damaging revelations of the Jan. 6 committee hearings are fueling skepticism among Senate Republicans that former President Trump can win the GOP nomination in 2024 or even run for another term in the White House.
One Republican senator, who requested anonymity to comment on the former president, said the “cascade” of embarrassing details about Trump’s conduct in the weeks before Jan. 6, 2021, and during the attack on the U.S. Capitol will seriously damage his political viability ahead of the 2024 election.
“I don’t think he’ll run again, and that’s a good thing, because of the whole cascade of events,” the senator said, referring to testimony by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson that Trump lunged at a Secret Service agent who refused to drive him to the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Hutchinson, an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, is now cooperating with a Justice Department investigation into the Jan. 6 attack, according to media reports.
A second GOP senator, who also requested anonymity, said the overwhelming majority of Republican senators don’t want Trump to be the party’s nominee for president again.
“I could count on one hand the number of Republican senators who want Donald Trump to be our nominee,” said the lawmaker, adding, “I could count it on one finger.”
The senator said that “the cumulative effect” of the Jan. 6 hearings is weighing on Trump’s viability in 2024.
Publicly, Senate Republican leaders predict Trump will face stiff competition in the 2024 GOP primary. They believe Trump’s grip on the party is slipping amid polling showing surging voter interest in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
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A growing number of Republican senators and voters are shifting to a more negative view of Trump.
A Reuters-Ipsos poll conducted last week showed that 40 percent of Republicans now think Trump deserves some blame for the attack on the Capitol. The poll also found that one-third of Republicans don’t think Trump should run again for president, up from 25 percent who said so at the beginning of last month.
Even Trump’s media allies are taking a closer look at potential rivals who could beat Trump in a Republican primary or dissuade him from even running.
The hosts of “Fox & Friends,” Fox News’s flagship morning news program, on Monday highlighted DeSantis leading Trump in several age demographics in a new Turning Point USA poll as well as the governor’s “tremendous strength” in New Hampshire, Michigan and Florida.
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The first GOP senator who spoke to The Hill confidentially predicted that Fox News’s other main anchors, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson, will give other potential Republican White House candidates more airtime and attention over the next year.
The senator said GOP voters “like” Trump but are “looking for other people to run,” describing what the lawmaker sees as growing Trump fatigue in the party.
Despite all this, Republican senators and strategists said Trump is still a formidable political force.
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GOP senators are skeptical damaged Trump can win in 2024 https://t.co/83g23BO03t pic.twitter.com/NWIDWP4UwY
— The Hill (@thehill) July 30, 2022
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