February 16, 2021: Republicans can't quit Trump
The Playbook Podcast
POLITICO
4.2 • 614 Ratings
🗓️ 16 February 2021
⏱️ 7 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | Stay tuned for a message from Facebook after the show. |
| 0:04.7 | Good Tuesday morning, I'm Adrienne Hurst and welcome to your Politico Playbook audio briefing. |
| 0:10.1 | Donald Trump may have been acquitted for a second time over the weekend, but despite that gripping impeachment trial presentation laying out the ex-president's role in the Capitol rampage, and despite McConnell saying this after voting |
| 0:21.5 | to acquit him, he did not do his job. He watched television happily, happily, as the chaos |
| 0:28.2 | unfolded. Despite all of that, Republicans just can't quit Donald Trump. We took a flash poll with |
| 0:34.2 | morning consult in the days following the trial, and here's what we found. |
| 0:37.9 | Trump is still the undisputed leader of the GOP, sorry to Mitch and Kevin McCarthy, and Republican |
| 0:43.1 | voters got over any misgivings they had about Trump's role on January 6th super fast. |
| 0:48.8 | Almost 60% of Republican voters polled said they want Trump to play a major role in their party |
| 0:54.1 | going forward. |
| 0:55.1 | Compare that with just over 40% who felt that way right after the insurrection, according to |
| 0:59.5 | another poll from morning consults. And I'm sure you're all just itching to start thinking about |
| 1:03.6 | 2024, but listen to this. Trump currently swamps any potential GOP rival, although that primary |
| 1:10.0 | still a ways off, and who knows what will happen |
| 1:12.4 | to Trump in three months from now, let alone in three years. More than half of Republicans, |
| 1:17.1 | 53 percent, said if the primary were held today, they would vote for Trump. This new poll comes |
| 1:22.3 | just as the most prominent elected Republican Mitch McConnell has launched a post-impeachment campaign |
| 1:27.1 | to loosen Trump's grip on the party. |
| 1:29.5 | McConnell wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed yesterday that while he was bound by the Constitution to acquit Trump because he's out of office, |
| 1:35.9 | he's also prepared to take on Trump-backed Senate candidates in 2022 when they risk blowing winnable races. |
| 1:42.2 | Talk about a GOP family feud. And here's a literal one. Just ask |
| 1:46.8 | Representative Adam Kinsinger about the party's undying love for Trump. The Illinois Republican is |
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