tick tock

Looks like Trump’s “big announcement” next week is ruined and–oh crap!–now Merrick Garland’s back

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This week’s midterm elections were supposed to be the opening act to Donald Trump’s big comeback as both a political kingmaker and the 2024 Republican frontrunner for President of the United States.

Instead, over a dozen of his handpicked candidates in high profile races across the country lost their bids, including TV doctor/U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania and former erotic horror movie actress/gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon in Michigan. Meanwhile, the Republican he attacked most, Ron “Don’t Say Gay” DeSantis, sailed to reelection in Florida with nearly 60% of the vote.

As a result, conservative media, pundits and commentators, and many Republicans and GOP operatives have started to turn on the one-term, twice-impeached ex-president. No longer the golden (man)child of their party, he’s persona non grata. Which leads us to next Tuesday, when he was supposed to make his “very big announcement” at Mar-a-Lago.

It has been widely speculated that Trump intends–er, intended–to announce his third run for the White House (fourth if you count his failed Reform Party run in 2000) on Tuesday. But after this week’s disappointing midterms results, many GOP insiders are urging him to, please, for the love of God and the good of the party, reconsider. Meanwhile, his top aides–the same people, mind you, who encouraged him to endorse all those loser candidates–are reportedly urging him to still go through with the announcement.

Per The Guardian:

Trump has suggested publicly that he intends to announce his 2024 presidential campaign next week as planned. Behind the scenes at Mar-a-Lago, in a sign of concern about his standing after the midterm results, he remains undecided on how to proceed. However, some initial invitations for the “special announcement” event have been sent.

Trump’s top staffers have firmly pressed him to announce his latest White House campaign as planned on Tuesday, the sources said, suggesting he would appear weak and wounded by the results were he to cave to demands that he hold off until the Senate runoff [in Georgia].

In addition to Trump’s brand being badly tarnished, there’s also the issue of campaign staffing.

The New York Times reported yesterday that, after the debacle of this week, people who were initially open to working on another presidential campaign with him are now reconsidering. Not only that, but he only has a small handful of advisors at the moment and zero key staffers in place for a campaign-in-waiting.

Related: After being cucked by Ron DeSantis on a world stage, Trump turns his ire toward Melania and Dr. Oz

And then there’s that pesky little issue of Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Justice Department.

It’s widely believed Trump will be indicted by the DOJ either for stealing classified documents from the White House and stashing them at Mar-a-Lago, or for inciting the January 6 insurrection in his final days in office, but that Garland has been following the so-called “60 day rule,” in which the DOJ avoids making any decisions that could impact an upcoming election.

Speaking on SiriusXM’s The Dean Obeidallah Show this week, Trump’s estranged niece Mary urged the Attorney General to indict her uncle ASAP now that the midterms are over. (Though, technically, we still have a runoff in Georgia to get through.)

“Are you hopeful? Not tomorrow, but in the near term, we’re going to see Donald Trump indicted for just one of his crimes–just pick any,” Obeidallah asked.

“I don’t know if I’m hopeful, but all I can say is, he has to be,” Mary replied. “I don’t know whether he will be or not, but he has to be. Because if he isn’t, then much worse things are going to start happening.”

Mary went on to say that the clock is ticking for Garland and the DOJ to make a decision.

“If they understand what Donald’s about to do, in terms of playing this very cynical card of, ‘If I’m announcing then any attack on me will be a political one.’ Right? Or ‘Any indictment of me will be politically motivated.’ I think the DOJ has about a week.”

She added, “They cannot wait until Donald decides to announce. So again, hopeful or not, it’s what they have to do, whether they will do it or not. Unfortunately, your guess is as good as mine.”

Here’s what others are saying on Twitter…

Related: Kellyanne’s comments from Monday about Tuesday’s midterms have aged worse than milk by Wednesday

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