Snatching Defeat From the Jaws of Victory

This is Donald Trump’s race to lose and there are times I wonder if he wants to. This weekend was one of those times. He spent more time attacking Brian Kemp and Georgia Republicans than he did Kamala Harris.

If Donald Trump loses in November and your first thought is that it was stolen, ask yourself why it was a good idea to re-nominate a man who had it stolen from him even while he was the sitting President in charge of the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security and FBI with Republican Governors in Arizona and Georgia. Now, in 2024, Joe Biden is in charge at the federal level, Democrats control Arizona, and Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensperger are still in charge in Georgia. Really, a genius plan.

Then ask yourself if maybe instead of it being stolen it was because 100 days before the election he decided to attack Kamala Harris’s race instead of her positions.

And ninety-three days before the election, he decided to attack the sitting Republican Governor of Georgia and his wife. Kemp had already said he’d support Trump in 2024.

Trump either lost or had Georgia stolen from him by less than twelve thousand votes. He needs a turnout machine in Georgia and the only available turnout machine happens to be that possessed by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s political operation.

If Trump wants to win, he needs Georgia. Perhaps he should not attack the most popular politician in the state and presume he can bully that man and his wife into helping him. Also, it should be noted that the Trump campaign did not invite Kemp to the event, which they could have done as a great show of unity.

This is absurd.

If this keeps up, you’ll have a lot of Republicans start reasoning that they could put up with Kamala Harris for two years and lock in the House and Senate in 2026 and it’d be far better to go through that than put up with Trump for four years and all the down ballot disasters that would come in 2026.

The whispers are already there, folks. Some Republicans see this behavior and think the party would be better off with Trump losing and pushing out those tied to him because of the loss. It’s foolish thinking, but it is growing. People are tired of being bullied with all the demands for unity and loyalty flowing in one direction — that’s more bowel movement than political movement. And it’s not just Trump, but his diehard supporters who wear people out who are willing to vote for Trump, but don’t want to hump his leg.

In 2020, Trump lost the state by less than 12,000 votes and 30,000+ refused to vote for President.

In 2021, Trump convinced 427,205 Republicans not to turnout for a runoff because it would be stolen. Democratic groups bought billboards in rural Georgia that proclaimed, “Why vote? It’s going to be stolen.” They reinforced Trump’s talking points and the GOP didn’t show up, handing the United States Senate to the Democrats.

In 2022, the Kemp ground game got Trump’s Senate pick, Herschel Walker, through a general election into a runoff, but couldn’t carry a bad candidate across the runoff finish line without Kemp also on the ballot. The GOP won every other statewide race and generated more votes statewide than the Democrats for legislative races.

The anomaly is Trump and his handpicked candidates. They underperform other Republicans in the state. So attacking a guy who has endorsed you whose ground game you need to win in 2024 is not wise. Luckily for Trump, Kemp is not a petty man. Unfortunately for Trump, he’s reminding those 40,000+ voters who wouldn’t vote for him in 2020 in Georgia why they didn’t vote for him.

A candidate who is known and disliked will lose to an unknown and undefined candidate through whom voters can pour their own dreams. The Harris campaign is outspending Trump in Georgia positively defining herself.

The state leans Republican right now and leans Trump, but there are ninety days for Trump to further screw it up.

Democrats have united behind Harris and Donald Trump is doing everything possible to sow discord on the right. It is campaign malpractice on his part.

There are ninety-one days until the election. Every single distraction attacking fellow Republicans (he attacked Republican Governors Bill Lee in Tennessee too) is just going to convince one more person on the right or an independent that it’ll be better to deal with Harris and rid the right of Trump than suffer through four years of a bullying jackass who seems intent on snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Trump needs to do better and keep his focus on Harris, not other Republicans.

Part of his problem is that he surrounds himself with the trolls of social media who, like Laura Loomer, whisper crazy in his ears and he regurgitates it after it has festered in his brain. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising if Bill White chatted with Trump before his tirade. White, a New York transplant to Georgia and friend of Trump, had a falling out with the Republican leaders in Georgia over his plans to make the northern part of Atlanta its own City of Buckhead. White got so angry, he packed up and moved to Palm Beach (and joined Mar-a-Lago), but probably whispered his vinegar in Trump’s ears before the Atlanta rally. White blames Kemp and has kept an “enemies list” with Kemp at the top. Here is White’s statement attacking Kemp over the Atlanta rally and his anger that Kemp did not show up at the rally. Note, again, Kemp was not invited to the rally. Last night, White came after me on social media and attacked Kemp’s wife.

The Democrats have been smart enough to minimize the crazy from getting too close to whisper in Harris’ ear. The Republicans put their crazy right next to Trump.

This won’t end well if Trump doesn’t do something else and he does not seem capable of doing something else. Again, and this is critically important, this is no longer a race between two old men that people don’t like, one of whom did a better job in office. This is now a race between an old man people don’t like and a woman they don’t really know. And the old man is spending more time reminding people why they dislike him than telling people who his opponent really is.

Politics isn’t that hard. Managing Donald Trump is impossible. Having the right fight amongst themselves while Democrats unite is not a recipe for winning.

The single message from Trump for the next ninety days needs to be MAGA stands for Make Affordable (Great)(Groceries)(Gas)(Goods) Again. The clock is ticking and a winnable race is slipping away through choices, not chance.

And, today, between the markets, a looming recession, and a war spreading in the Middle East while we have a dementia addled patient in charge, Trump needs to remind people he can lead, not just complain about the past. Otherwise, the Democrats will cast Kamala Harris in the role of leader and work overtime to make her look calm as Trump, yet again, relitigates 2020.