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Another spectacle that may have an impact on the election is Donald Trump’s trial, which may be taking place in the nation’s largest metropolis while Republican voters in the pivotal early states prepare to select their presidential nominee the next year.
Judge Juan Merchan scheduled the next hearing in the Manhattan district attorney’s case against Trump on December 4 on Tuesday. The former president entered a not guilty plea to the 34 felony counts of business record falsification that were included in the indictment against him as part of a conspiracy to hide past alleged affairs from the electorate.
While Trump’s defense team asked for the trial to commence “later in the spring” of next year, prosecutors pushed for it to begin in January.
If the prosecution has its way, the nation would witness Trump fighting to prove his innocence in New York while campaigning in Iowa and New Hampshire, whose primary elections are on February 5 and February 13, respectively.
On the one hand, a trial might severely restrict the amount of campaigning Trump could do in the last days of those contests. On the other hand, it might give him a big platform and media exposure that would vastly eclipse the campaigning of his main competitors.
Both Trump supporters and detractors expressed the opinion that the second scenario is more probable.
A Republican consultant who supports Trump predicted that Trump would now absolutely control the media during the whole primary. “Probably the best-case scenario for him, timing-wise.”
This person continued, “It was already extremely tough to effectively attack Trump from the right, and now I think it just became basically impossible,” “Democrats are literally trying to put this guy in jail over BS charges. How do you effectively land a shot in a way that the base will accept?”
The Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who routinely polls as Trump’s top competitor for the GOP nomination, and the rest of the Republican field, according to a national Democratic operative, are the ones who stand to lose the most from the Manhattan case continuing at least into the winter.
The Republicans “has not demonstrated a single inkling that they are willing to drive a wedge with him,” this individual said, adding that DeSantis’ biggest nightmare is that he will have to spend the next nine months responding to inquiries about how he feels about Donald Trump’s indictment.
We all understand that MAGA supporters make up the majority of the Republican Party’s base at this time, and you cannot alienate them.
The impact of the primary schedule conflicting with a trial was not specifically addressed by a representative of the pro-DeSantis Never Back Down super PAC, but the representative did state that “Should Gov. DeSantis decide to heed the growing calls from the never-back-down grassroots movement to run for president, he is showing strength in early voting states and would win.”
However, the request for a spring trial start date by Trump’s legal team may indicate that he wants to complete the early stages before going on trial.
According to a court transcript, Merchan called the April request made by the Trump legal team “reasonable,” but he also said, “The message I would like to deliver is we would like to move ahead as expeditiously as possible, without undue delay.”
By the time the primary season begins, Trump may not just be in legal trouble in New York City. According to legal experts, the accusations against Trump in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. that he attempted to tamper with Georgia’s election results, encouraged an uprising at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and handled classified documents improperly are much more serious than the accusations against him in Manhattan.
The Democratic operative pointed out that even if Trump were prevented from campaigning as the early state elections approached, he would still be able to gain attention in Iowan communities like Des Moines and Davenport.
Democratic operative: “Donald Trump can get on the phone with reporters and acquire sound bites for the local Iowa TV station and still reach Iowa voters if he is not there physically. “Donald Trump doesn’t have to do the glad-handing and kissing the babies in the same way that, like, Ron DeSantis or Tim Scott does.” a source said.
It would not be the first time that a Trump trial and the first presidential elections in Iowa and New Hampshire collided. As the election approached in February 2020, a few Democratic senators who were running for president were prevented from leaving Washington by Trump’s first impeachment trial. Trump was exonerated on February 5, 2020, two days after the Iowa caucuses, after the trial started in mid-January.
