Ahead of the 2024 US presidential election, a column titled “Why Trump Can’t Win” was published in a leading conservative magazine in the US, sparking heated debate in US politics.
On the 29th of last month (local time), ‘National Review’ columnist Andrew McCarthy said in the column, “I am convinced that Donald Trump will never be elected president of this United States again.” “I voted for him twice, but now I don’t think it’s worth dealing with his irreparable flaws.”
He added, “I think Trump should be impeached and convicted in connection with a serious crime in 2021 (the 1st and 6th Capitol Riots), and his future qualifications related to public office should be disqualified.”
First of all, McCarthy cited former President Donald Trump’s attitude of not disobeying the election as the reason why he should not be elected. He said, “I shouldn’t have been elected with the same logic as ‘if we change a few votes,’” he said. By comparison, Trump lost to Biden by 7 million votes.”
The second thing that former President Trump should not be elected was that he blamed the 2020 presidential election defeat on changes to the election law and media coverage.
McCarthy wrote, “It can be said that the voting protection system has been loosened due to Corona 19, but it is the same for both Democrats and Republicans,” and “as a result, the total number of votes in 2020 was 26 million more than in 2016.”
“But this was not unprecedented. In the 2004 presidential election, more than 20 million Americans voted more than in the previous election,” he said. Considering that, the odds of winning were high,” he added.
Lastly, McCarthy saw that the riots at the Capitol on the 1st and 6th had a decisive impact on former President Trump. “Trump’s appalling behavior after the 2020 election made the Republican Senate pay for it,” he said.
“Trump has been empirically proven to be unsuitable,” he concluded. “It doesn’t matter what you personally think of Trump. The question is whether the Democrats are happy to rule America (meaning that if Trump runs for the Republican nomination, he will most likely lose to the Democrats),” he stressed.
Currently, this column has about 1,700 comments, and it has been quoted 255 times on Twitter, and various reactions are coming and going.
Regarding this column, Bill Kristol, who founded the anti-Trump conservative non-profit political group ‘DDT’ (Defending Democracy Together), tweeted, “There are seven words Republicans will never say.” “Donald. Trump. Should. Never. Be. President. Again. (Donald Trump should never be president again.)”
However, as in 2016, there was also a pessimistic response that former President Trump might be elected. Columnist William Saletan also shared McCarthy’s column on his Twitter and said, “I want to believe this. Unfortunately, I remember things I wanted to believe turned out to be false,” he wrote. “To give a simple example, in 2016 I believed that Trump could not win.”
“People who said Trump couldn’t win the 2016 primary are still writing that Trump can’t win,” said Jude Legum, a journalist and lawyer who runs Think Progress, an independent progressive media outlet. Trump can win.”
On the other hand, former President Trump’s hardline supporters reacted furiously, saying, “Put it away,” and “Remember that you were insulted for saying exactly this in 2016.”
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.