Even Republican Senator John Thune admits he’s “worried” about Trump’s appeal in the “middle of the electorate,” pointedly noting that this could hurt Republicans downballot. A Washington Post poll finds that large majorities of independents view the prosecutions of Trump as legitimate under the law. And as Ron Brownstein details, a fair amount of data shows that a small but nontrivial swath of educated, moderate Republican voters remain concerned about Trump’s assaults on democracy and alleged crimes. So Thune’s fear seems reasonable.
As Democrats debate how they should handle all this, the 2020 election may offer clues. In some ways, Covid-19 froze the political debate on Trump’s handling of the pandemic, sidelining his countless other degradations. But Kate Bedingfield, a chief strategist on President Biden’s 2020 campaign, points out that on Covid, Democrats successfully tied Trump’s deranged personal displays—the denialism, the unconcern about blue state cases, the talk of bleach injection—to his disastrous Covid-related policy failures.
Democrats could attempt something similar by tying Trump’s sexual assault to his boasting about appointing the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn abortion rights. “He has no respect for women’s bodies,” Bedingfield told me. “The way he’s treating E. Jean Carroll is yet another reminder of how little he thinks of a woman’s right to make her own decisions—of a woman’s autonomy and freedom.”