By S.A. McCarthy
The Washington Stand
Democrats are waging a “lawfare” campaign against former President Donald Trump, but it may actually be hurting Joe Biden’s reelection efforts. According to the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, voters will be largely split if a jury convicts the former president of crimes. If Trump were to be convicted either “of crimes related to his handling of classified presidential documents” or “for RICO in trying to influence the 2020 election results in Georgia,” voters would be split 50% to 50% between Trump and Biden. However, if Trump were to be convicted “for inciting the Capitol riots of January 6th,” he would beat Biden 52% to 48%.
Interestingly, the January iteration of the same poll showed that Trump would win if convicted in the first two cases but lose if convicted in the last. Those numbers shifted seemingly sporadically over the course of February and March, though in neither month did the survey predict a Biden victory. Of note, the number of registered Democrats voting against Trump if convicted “for inciting the Capitol riots of January 6th” dropped from 92% in January to a steady 86% over the past several months.
Mike Davis, founder of originalist constitutional think tank Article 3 Project, spoke on Monday’s episode of “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” about Biden’s “lawfare” campaign against Trump. “President Biden’s fingerprints are directly on all four of these criminal prosecutions,” Davis claimed. “This is a criminal conspiracy by President Biden, his White House staff, his attorney general, his Justice Department, and these Democrat AGs in New York and Arizona, and these Democrat [district attorneys] in New York City and Fulton County, Georgia.” He continued, “They are violating the civil rights of President Trump, his co-defendant Walt Nauta, his 18 co-defendants in the Georgia case, these defendants in Arizona — this is a criminal conspiracy to violate their civil rights for the purpose of interfering in the election.”
“They waited 30 months to bring these unprecedented indictments. They timed — they tried to time — these trials back-to-back-to-back in 2024 during the heat of the presidential campaign. They wanted President Trump stuck in a courtroom like they’ve done in New York City,” Davis explained. Referring to how the “lawfare” campaign has impacted the Biden campaign, he added, “Now the rats are swimming back to the ship because it looks like this lawfare is backfiring spectacularly on these Democrats, including President Biden. It’s going to propel President Trump back into the White House, and I don’t think that’s what the Democrats intended.”
According to April’s Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, a majority of voters agreed that the prosecutions leveled against Trump are biased, unfair, and politically-motivated. Fifty-six percent of voters (including 57% of Independent voters and over a quarter of Democrats) said that the prosecutions against Trump are “politically motivated,” up from a steady 54% throughout March, February, and January.
A survey from McLaughlin and Associates, published in March, found that nearly 70% of Americans agree that the indictments and prosecution leveled against Trump are politically motivated, with almost 60% of voters (including almost 40% of Democrats) saying that Biden has played a role in the Trump prosecutions, 52% of voters saying that the “lawfare” campaign is designed to keep the 45th president from returning to the White House, and 56% of voters (including a third of Democrats) saying that Biden is trying “to stop President Trump from winning the election by putting him in jail…”
Other polls suggest that this may be true, with Trump taking a significant lead over Biden. For example, an Emerson College/The Hill survey released on Tuesday shows Trump besting Biden in seven swing states. Trump leads Biden in North Carolina by five points, in Arizona by four points, in Georgia by three points, in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin by two points, and in Michigan and Nevada by one point. The survey also found that a plurality of voters across all seven swing states believe the trial being conducted against Trump in New York City “is a witch hunt.” In only one state, Nevada, a narrow majority (51%) of voters said that the trial “is appropriate to hold Trump accountable.” The survey also found that if Trump were convicted in that trial, it would either have “no impact” on voters’ support for Trump or else make them “more likely” to vote for him. One third or fewer of voters responded that they would be “less likely” to vote for Trump if convicted.
Davis predicted that the New York City case, under Democratic District Attorney Alvin Bragg, would be the only case against Trump not tossed out by the courts. “The bottom line is this New York City Bragg case, this dog of a case in New York, may be the only case that gets to trial before the election,” Davis opined, adding, “This is their weakest, dumbest case.” Davis anticipated that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on January 6-related cases would result in the cases that Special Counsel Jack Smith is prosecuting against Trump being dropped, and that the court would further rule that Trump could not be prosecuted for official acts during his presidency.
“The American people are going to put President Trump back in the White House on November 5, 2024,” Davis concluded. “And come January 20, 2025, when he is sworn in, there are going to be severe legal, political, and financial consequences for this Democrat lawfare and election interference. These are republic-ending tactics by the Democrats — and there must be consequences.”
Originally published at The Washington Stand!
