This Is Why Trump Is So Desperate To End The GOP Primary
He's winning handily, but he's in for a ton of bad news before Haley's last stand in South Carolina
If a combination of fear and cult-like devotion explain why most Republicans are reluctant to even acknowledge Donald Trump’s legal exposure, Friday’s $83.3 million judgment against him for sexually assaulting then serially defaming E. Jean Carroll explains why he’s so desperate to force Nikki Haley out of the Republican presidential primary.
These are complementary questions: Why hasn’t Haley conceded? And why does Donald Trump, who’s winning handily, care so much?
Trump is a narcissistic sociopath, so he’d react to any stubborn challenge this way. But if he weren’t a narcissistic sociopath, he’d probably be in much less legal hot water, and Haley probably would’ve dropped out after New Hampshire. In other words, it’s very hard to answer these two questions without reference to his rampant law-breaking, and the measures of accountability that are finally catching up with him.
The GOP primary in Haley’s South Carolina is less than a month away. Haley is losing. The state’s congressional delegation stands foursquare behind Trump. If there were no asterisks next to his candidacy, he could take a higher road, allow her to crash and burn, and claim the nomination at least somewhat magnanimously, without threatening her donors, or attacking her in sexist and racist ways.
But a lot can happen even in one month, and Trump would’ve liked to sew up the nomination before any of it. I first put this observation forward Friday morning: “Before South Carolina, Trump is likely to lose his dictatorial immunity claim, lose his New York businesses, and be assessed nine-figures in damages for continuing to defame E. Jean Carroll, the woman a jury concluded he sexually assaulted.” Under those circumstances it’d be very helpful to him for the GOP to be maximally united behind him, toeing his dishonest line that everything happening to him is the consequence of an endless “witch hunt.”
By Friday night, events had proven me terribly wrong: