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Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist, called former President Donald Trump’s indictment arraignment “uncharted historic waters.”
“...the last time in recent history we had a president in some felony danger, it was Richard Nixon, and he made a deal to vanish from public life and not be prosecuted,” he told KNX In Depth.
As for how this could impact Trump in the polls, Murphy, who has worked on multiple senatorial and gubernatorial campaigns and was the lead strategist for John McCain in the 2000 primaries, said some of the polls could be a little misleading.
“I've worked in polling for over 35 years and I've learned to take a lot of it with a grain of salt, particularly national polling because timing is everything,” he said. “The Republican Party is kind of like the Red Sox, New York Yankees rivalry. Red Sox fans can quietly think, ‘We got to get rid of our pitcher. The guy's a loser. He's a disgrace.’ But that doesn’t mean when a Yankee fan asks them what they think they’re gonna say, ‘We have a lousy pitcher.’”
Murphy noted that while Republican presidential candidates like Nikki Haley and Tim Scott may be cautious not to offend Trump voters, “they know this is an untenable situation for their own political instincts in a general election.”
“Haley has done a bit of a pivot...so has Senator Scott and I think you're gonna see more of that because when one sees the other doing it and nothing bad happens to them in the early states, more will leap on because I can tell you...I know what they're all thinking, ‘the more we get rid of him the better,” he said.
He noted that while Trump does have supporters rallying around him, the group is “totally capable of shrinking.”
“They've already shrunk since he was defeated by Joe Biden and there's nothing necessarily to prevent them from shrinking again,” he said.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 charges against him.
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