Donald Trump may or may not be the future of the Republican party. There are plenty of reasons why he might not be. Especially after the Supreme Court ruled that the state of New York can look at Trump’s tax returns.
And if the Republican nominee isn’t Trump, the field for the 2024 candidate is wide open. Josh Hawley, despite the January 6th insurrection, hopes that he might be the guy. On Wednesday, an MSNBC panel talked about how the Missouri senator is appealing to the “Trumpiest” part of the base.
Nicolle Wallace asked the panel about Hawley’s decision to oppose a Domestic terror law. Panelist Peter Baker weighed in:
“The issue here is blame, and he is feeling the heat, obviously. He’s been excoriated not just by Democrats, but even fellow Republicans like John Danforth, former senator from Missouri, Republican, and one of his mentors, who said endorsing him was one of his biggest mistakes. He’s been excoriated by his home state newspapers. He’s trying to distance himself from the actions of Jan. 6th in making the case to some of the more extreme people out there on the right that the government is really to blame, the government’s excessive power is the real problem here, and that appeals to some in the crowd that day.”
Wallace then remarked, “He’s appealing to and defending the actions that everyone who testified yesterday said were white supremacists. I don’t understand the whole frame. When they say sit around and let’s defend white supremacists, let’s defend — why are they rowing against the fact-finding mission around Jan. 6th?”
Watch a clip of the segment below, courtesy of MSNBC:
Todd Neikirk is a New Jersey based politics and technology writer. His work has been featured in psfk.com, foxsports.com and hillreporter.com. He enjoys sports, politics, comic books and spending time at the shore with his family.