Democrats will be applauding the verdict of the New York jury, which found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 counts in his hush money trial. We all know what they’re thinking. They’re happy, gleeful, even smug.
But 36% of Americans identify as conservatives, including myself. So what are we thinking?
Conservatives who love Trump saw this coming. They were upset he got indicted in the first place, and a guilty verdict has now raised Trump to martyrdom status. But we fall into a couple of groups now having to respond to the verdict.
Trump verdict will only energize MAGA Republicans
This doesn’t mean he actually is a martyr. He’s not in any sense of the political term. But to Republicans who think Trump is God and MAGA is their religion, a guilty verdict now means they’d rather roast on hot coals all day and crawl to a voting booth 30 seconds before closing than not cast a vote for Trump on Election Day.
Nothing will keep them from voting for him − especially not now. They believe the criminal justice system in New York is biased and the “system” is rigged, and the trials in every other state with this same verdict will not convince them otherwise.
Trump is guilty:It won’t matter at all this election.
For some Republicans who maybe are not quite as pro-Trump, this verdict could take these folks by surprise a bit. It might reinforce their notions that Trump is not an ethical or honest man, but they’re surprised a jury finds him now a convicted felon.
This could raise red flags for these Republicans − and not just about Trump.
On her own show, former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, before the verdict, captured how these people might be thinking.
“Now we’ve seen the prosecution’s case in full against Donald Trump and it’s even more outrageous than we knew,” she said. “There’s a reason (Manhattan District Attorney) Alvin Bragg was playing cutesie with us, on what this case was built upon, from the moment he indicted Donald Trump. And we heard that reason for the first time during closing arguments in this case. Donald Trump was not afforded due process in this case. Not by a long shot. They refused to tell the defendant, who had to answer to criminal charges, what they were charging him with. We only found out hours ago. After his defense attorney sat down and had no additional chance to address the jury. This is an outrage. This is disgusting.”
These Republicans are suspicious of the verdict and are asking themselves: Who even goes on trial for this anyway? They may still vote for him out of spite for what they consider to be an untrustworthy system.
The rest of us Republicans don’t support Trump – but are still conservative
There is a sect of Republicans, like myself, who supported Trump first but don’t now. But we’re still conservatives.
We don’t think the 2020 election was rigged, we don’t think the world is out to get Trump or us, and we’re fairly logical, decent-minded people with conservative values.
We wish Trump was not the presumptive nominee, but we aren’t miracle workers and we cannot persuade the Republican National Committee to give Trump up.
For Republicans who knew that Trump was unethical and immoral, this verdict confirms our suspicions. The guilty verdict makes these Republicans all the more frustrated that the GOP has chosen Trump as its de facto nominee.
Republicans support a criminal now:Trump, guilty on all counts, carries a new label into 2024 election: Convicted felon
This verdict proves he was and continues to be the wrong choice. It’s not even a “gotcha” moment; it’s sad and discouraging. It’s outrageous. They’re law-and-order Republicans who believe conservatives want better and can do better than offer the nation a convicted criminal as the nominee.
These Republicans will have the hardest time voting in November.
Democrats can snag them with the selling point that their nominee is not a convicted criminal. However, Biden’s also one of the worst Democrats to run for office in the past two decades. It would not be surprising to see many of these folks support a write-in candidate or opt out of voting altogether.
Republicans now have some tough questions to ask ourselves
While the jury may have deliberated on this case, observing merely the facts of the trial and found Trump guilty, their verdict speaks volumes to Republicans across the country. For MAGA Republicans, a guilty verdict will only endear Trump to them further. It will throw gasoline on the grassroots fire.
For anti-Trump Republicans, it’ll only reinforce the notions we already had about how awful of a person Trump is.
Regardless of whether Republicans think that Trump was guilty or that the hush money trial was an example of lawfare, it’s still sad, even maddening, that we’re choosing to nominate a person who is now a convicted felon.
It’s still frustrating that any of us have to ask these questions. Is Trump really guilty? Was the hush money trial legitimate? If it were Biden on trial, would we even be asking?
We shouldn’t have to answer these questions because we shouldn’t be choosing someone who forces us to do so. Lawfare or not, guilty verdict or not, we could choose someone who doesn’t make choices that land him anywhere near criminal indictments. We could choose better.
Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids.
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