Trump wants revenge in 2024
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2024
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
If he wins reelection, former president Donald Trump will probably seek revenge on his political enemies. Less than a week before the Iowa caucuses, Trump remains the front-runner, but it’s unclear how that message of retribution will play with the general electorate.
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On the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, former president Donald Trump stood at a lectern in Iowa and applauded those who have been charged with participating in the riot and called on President Biden to release the rioters who are incarcerated, who Trump said were “hostages.”
And that message may be resonating with Republicans. A recent poll conducted by The Washington Post and the University of Maryland found that over the past two years, Republican voters seemed to have softened their perspective on Jan. 6, and particularly whether Trump had any responsibility for the attack.
National political reporter Isaac Arnsdorf joins us today to explain how Republicans’ feelings about Trump have shifted and the Trump campaign’s strategy to secure a victory in the primaries.
Today’s show was produced by Arjun Singh. It was mixed by Rennie Svirnovskiy and edited by Lucy Perkins. Thank you to Emma Talkoff.
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Pre-order Isaac Arnsdorf’s upcoming book “Finish What We Started: The MAGA Movement’s Ground War to End Democracy” here.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Former President Trump appeared in federal court today, this time for his immunity claims related to the January 6th attack. |
| 0:10.0 | He didn't have to be there. He showed up voluntarily at the courthouse in DC and just a few days before the Iowa Caucasus. |
| 0:19.0 | This is shaping up to be a key strategy for Trump in 2024, mixing his courtroom arguments with his campaign |
| 0:26.0 | pitch to voters. |
| 0:27.0 | They ought to release the J6 hostages. |
| 0:31.0 | They've suffered enough. |
| 0:32.0 | They've got to release them. I call them hostages. Some people call them prisoners. I call them hostages. |
| 0:39.1 | release the J6 hostages Joe. |
| 0:43.0 | release him Joe. |
| 0:44.5 | You can do it real easy, Joe. |
| 0:46.5 | He's trying to position himself being prosecuted |
| 0:49.8 | for trying to overturn the election |
| 0:52.1 | as part of the same persecution for being Trump supporters |
| 0:56.8 | that people in the riot have been arrested for. |
| 0:59.7 | And the latest escalation of that is he's now saying hostages, which is even more inflammatory. |
| 1:05.3 | Isaac Arnstorf is a national political reporter for the post. |
| 1:09.0 | He's been covering Trump's 2024 re-election bid. |
| 1:12.0 | In the MAGA movement, January 6th symbolizes the larger sense of being robbed, of the election |
| 1:20.7 | being stolen, of the presidency and power being taken away from them, |
| 1:25.3 | and that being the thing that this campaign is about to redeem that defeat. That's according to a recent poll from the Washington Post and University of Maryland. |
| 1:45.0 | The poll found that Republicans are more likely to absolve Trump of responsibility for January 6th |
| 1:51.0 | than they were in 2021. |
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