When a former Trump official comes out with a story demonstrating Trump’s unfitness for office, nihilistic Trump defenders leap into action, questioning the motives, context, or credibility of the individual making the claim. They’re doing this right now with General Kelly. They want you to forget the cumulative weight of the accusations against Trump coming from a raft of his own former employees. Kelly is far from alone in warning the American people that Trump is a threat to the country. Let’s start with Trump’s former Vice President:

Currently conducting a focus group of swing voters from swing states. Across the board they think Harris won the debate. No one is buying the complaints about the moderators.

I don’t think saying “Trump is uniquely unfit and dangerous and therefore I will use my unique position of influence to argue that’s what’s gone wrong with the conservative movement is that some conservatives are actively supporting Harris to stop Trump” is the stand you think it is. Look, my initial response was prompted by your claim that some conservatives support for Harris was a driver of the sad state of the conservative movement. Which is silly. Trump and Republicans and GOP voters are responsible for that and it’s why some conservatives find themselves supporting Democrats.

I’ve conducted 14 focus groups since the debate. Some top lines from the swing voter groups:

1. Almost ALL want Biden to step aside. They don’t think he can do the job for four more years. 2. They have a negative impression of Kamala Harris, but it’s an impression, not locked in. Mainly don’t know what she does.

3. The preferences for an alternative are all over the map. But Whitmer/Shapiro/Newsom are the top picks. Basically they just want someone younger.

I’m not disagreeing, exactly, but I actually think the biggest risk for DeSantis is that people only want to move on from Trump if there’s someone they really like to move on to—and GOP voters might decide they don’t actually like DeSantis once they see more of him.

https://twitter.com/RonBrownstein/status/1640116130084970496

Voters’ relationship with Trump is deep. Good, bad, ugly, they know who the guy is. The relationship with DeSantis is shallow. National voters haven’t seen that much of him directly. And with Trump relentlessly on the attack, his favorables will be tested for the first time.

Here's the thing: There's a real appetite among GOP voters for a Ron DeSantis run. I see it all the time in focus groups. He's far-and-away the name that comes up most often as the person who should run if Trump doesn't. Or, often, who they'd like to see run instead of Trump. BUT

https://twitter.com/wsteaks/status/1590070448385294338

Most of these voters are familiar with Ron DeSantis because they've seen clips of him yelling at the media. Or yelling at teenagers to take off their masks. Or yelling at Disney. Fighting and keeping FL open during COVID are what they know and like about him. But how does that

A bunch of prominent conservatives went through the election fraud allegations state-by-state and thoroughly debunked Trump’s claims. It’s all here in a 72 page report. bit.ly/3aBlnGb “The performance of the system in 2020 was all the more remarkable because of the extraordinary circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which precipitated changes on an unprecedented scope and timeline. Some of those changes may have created possibilities for fraud…

I have an answer to this question.

https://twitter.com/mollyjongfast/status/1511852160450969604

Recently I stayed in a hotel. A nice one. I was alone for a work thing. I woke up in the morning and walked around the room in my bare feet drinking water and getting ready. At some point I noticed something on the floor.

As we get closer to Jan 6th, a lot of Republicans are going to preemptively gaslight about what happened that day. Minimize. Deflect. Act like you’re the crazy one for making such a big deal about it.

“The media is obsessed!”
“It was just a protest!”

Don’t let them. There is every reason to remind Americans about what exactly happened on 1/6.

The US Capitol was attacked by people trying to stop the certification of an election.

They were motivated by a lie told by Trump that is ongoing, believed by a large majority of Republicans.

I like end-of-year Best Shows lists. But they all have too much superhero junk on them for my taste. So here are my cape-free favs from 2021: I’m nominally Team Shiv on Succession, but could be talked into being on Team Greg or Team Gerri.

I’d like to tell you a bit about the people who built @RVAT2020. Sure, you know about the big dogs @TimoDC, @BillKristol, and @MurphyMike. But behind the scenes there is the hard-working, deeply committed team at Longwell Partners who assembled this project block by block. 1/12: @barrubin: Barry makes sick videos. He shoots and cuts on a dime. He’ll go anywhere. Is there a viral CSPAN clip from 20 years ago highlighting a current Senator’s hypocrisy? He probably found it. Barry is OG in my life, and there’s no way this project happens without him. 2/12

Today Joe Walsh announced he’s going to primary President Trump for the GOP nomination. Walsh wasn’t on my radar in 2010, but if he had been I would have hated him. He was a canary in the coal mine for where the Republican Party was headed, which culminated in Trump’s election in 2016 and the full capitulation of the GOP that followed. I’ve worried for a long time that there might be no way back for the Republican Party or the conservative movement. Trump has laid bare a rot in the party that many didn’t see. I didn’t see. But it gives me some measure