Hillary Clinton has a terrific track record, unfortunately. She has called the shots with respect to Donald Trump all the way down the line and she’s been right. In 2016 a lot of people didn’t believe her that he was as bad as he was, because frankly it was pretty unbelievable. But she was right. The handwriting was on the wall way back when and everything she said could or would happen did.
Clinton gave an interview recently to “Sunday Today” and she said that Trump is going to be the nominee in 2024. Although, like the rest of us, she doesn’t have a crystal ball and Trump’s legal encumberments may prevent him from running. This script of Trump’s is still a work in progress and key scenes are being written, as we speak, by the January 6 Committee, as well as the State of New York and SDNY. Yahoo News:
“If I were a betting person right now, I’d say Trump is going to run again,” she told the “Sunday Today” host Willie Geist. “He seems to be setting himself up to do that, and if he’s not held accountable, he gets to do it again.”
“I think that could be the end of our democracy,” she said. “Not to be too pointed about it, but I want people to understand that this could be a make-or-break point. If he or someone of his ilk were once again to be elected president, especially if he had a Congress that would do his bidding, you will not recognize our country.”
Trump has flirted with a 2024 presidential bid since leaving the White House in January, but he has not yet made an official announcement of his plans.
When Geist asked Clinton whether she ever had “moments of responsibility or even guilt” about Trump’s tenure in the White House, she acknowledged having such feelings.
“Of course,” she said. “I tried to warn people. I tried to make the case that this was really dangerous — the people he was allied with, what they were saying, what he might do. I do think but for Jim Comey and the stunt he pulled 10 days before the election, I would have won.”
The stunt was the October 28 letter to Congress informing them that the FBI was going to renew an investigation into her email server. That swayed enough Independents at the last minute to cost her the election, she says.
Clinton also reflected on Trump’s base of supporters, noting that he was trying to install loyalists in key election posts across the US.
“Clearly, there were people who liked what they saw, despite what I see as the real dangers to our country,” she said. “They turned out and voted for him. And he’s trying to get it set up so that will happen again for him, even as he loses, as he did twice the popular vote.”
I basically agree with everything she has to say, but two caveats here and they are big ones: 1) The January 6 Committee is going to uncover a lot of dirt. We don’t know what, how much, or how it will affect Trump or the GOP. 2) We don’t know what is going to happen in the 2022 election. Those are two giant blocks of information that we don’t have now and they both will materially, and most likely massively, affect what happens in 2024. So while I think she’s right about what she says here, there is going to be a lot of water under the bridge between now and 2024.
Allow me to add Caveat #3: Trump himself is in terrible shape. The COVID he stupidly brought on himself took a lot more out of him than anyone is willing to admit, detractors included. Add in general chaos within the GOP ranks, fundraising operations within the RNC being a number of overlapping grifts and the attrition of voters to COVID and I am less panicked. Julius Geezer is going to be running his campaign from prison (if lucky) or the graveyard (if not).
Or possibly from long-term care, since he may have Long COVID.
Best way to guarantee a Trump win in 2024. Nominate Hillary to run against him.