As I recently continued my radio tour across our Republic discussing former President Trump's recent indictment in Wilmington, North Carolina, a state to watch closely both for the presidential and it's own gubernatorial race with Lt. Gov Mark Robinson, a recurring theme began to emerge. The majority of Americans, regardless of political ideology, believe that, while what Trump did was wrong, not only do they believe most politicians and businessmen commit morally dubious actions, but that this particular indictment is purely motivated by politics, not the law.
Despite this, national Democrats believe that, while this will help Trump become the Republican nominee, which most people believe to be the case, are they right in their belief that this will also hurt him in a general election when 60% of Americans believe this is a political witchhunt? When all this does is further fuel the flames of populous resentment towards what they perceive to be the establishment? When President Biden is their presumed candidate? When this has helped to turn Trump into a more-focused candidate?
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The following transcript from this interview is presented in its entirety with minor edits:
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Trump, Independents, Barr, jury pool, Joe Biden, Republican, barrage, indict, outrage.
SPEAKERS
TBORA President John Pudner and J.T.
Nick Craig 00:00
Former President Donald Trump pleading not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. To get some national reaction on the issue, I'd like to welcome John Pudner to our airwaves this morning. He is over at Take Back Our Republic Action. John, you've been in the political game a long time, my friend. You ever seen anything like this unfold before?
John Pudner 00:32
I have not seen anything like this. I think Trump said it right last night. You'd just never thought this would've happened in America. I think he showed proper political indignation in that speech last night.
Nick Craig 00:43
I'll tell you what, I think his speech was absolutely spot on. I was concerned that he was going to go on to a two-hour diatribe, and just go capture people's eyes for a couple of minutes, and then everybody would move on. Looking at the details itself, you've got these 34 felony indictments that seemingly surround one single charge that many argue is based on shaky judicial theory at best. These things don't just happen by accident, though, John. What's behind all this?
John Pudner 01:13
Well, I think the Democrat's calculus is they believe this helps ensure Trump is the nominee and they believe he's the easiest one to beat. Now, they may be incorrect. I think everyone agrees with him on the first part, but that said, it does make it much harder to beat Trump in a nomination fight, but does it build enough sympathy that it kind of overcomes what we see in polling and what keeps Trump's dealing a little low, which is January 6th and 'Stop the Steal'? I mean, the middle doesn't like those terms, but does this overcome that just for that middle of the road? Voters might say, "Well, gosh, now they really are using the government now for political persecution." That's the big question. Are they right about the general or not?
Nick Craig 01:59
Before we chatted with you, a caller called in with that exact same question - what kind of impact does this have on the true middle-the-road voter? Plenty of people say, "Oh, I'm a moderate", yet they're very much in one camp or the other. It's hard to look at this, a 16-page indictment of crimes, but none of the crimes are listed. I can imagine all of the pomp and circumstance behind this was probably pretty disappointing to some of the Democrats yesterday.
John Pudner 02:31
Well, I think so, and the interesting thing in polling is you have a small majority thinking Trump did something wrong, and my guess is the majority thinks most business people or politicians do something wrong, but it's about 60% that think it's political, not legally based, and that's what Trump really has, because what Trump's been battling is...he's kind of had this 45% ceiling ever since January 6th, and he'd argue, "Okay, there's about 15% out there now. Who thinks he's being politically attacked that are not in that 45%?" Does that get him to where he can be 50% or above again?
Nick Craig 03:08
We're talking this morning to John Pudner. He is over at Take Back Our Republic Action. Tell us a little bit about your group and how folks can get involved.
John Pudner 03:19
Sure, you can go to takebackaction.org. We deal with election reform issues, anything that protects the voter, gives them more information, and we fight foreign money from China potentially coming through groups like ActBlue, so we'd love to have you sign-up. We have a state chapter there, and yeah, we'd love to have anyone give you updates.
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