Senate Republicans generally feel confident that damaging revelations will not have a major impact on the midterm elections, citing economic factors such as inflation as much more important to voter turnout. But Republican senators are less sure what the testimony before the committee, which has received intense media coverage, means about Trump’s viability as a candidate for the 2024 presidency. There are indications that Trump’s popularity among Republican voters is declining, but GOP lawmakers are reluctant to rule out his chances of winning 2024, given the way he defied predictions in 2016. “To the extent that there are people who have not decided or do not have an opinion one way or another, maybe something will come out of it to change that,” said Whip John Thune (RS.D.) when asked what impact he thinks the Jan. 6 hearings could have on voters. “But it seems that at the moment mainly the ground is being rebuilt.” “It simply came to our notice then. “Who knows if he will run again,” he added. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Who along with Thune urged his colleagues in the GOP in the Senate not to support objections to the counting of the Electoral College, told reporters last week that he was not focusing at the hearings of the Parliament. “I’m focused on what we are doing in the Senate and I think the most important thing we are doing right now is the veterans bill and the issue. [going] “Proceed to these violent crimes that we have witnessed,” he said, referring to negotiations on a gun security bill. However, McConnell also said in December that it would be important to learn more about what triggered the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. “I think the evidence is interesting. “We will all watch it,” he said six months ago. “It was a horrible event and I think what they are trying to learn is something that the public needs to know.” Many Senate Republicans are skeptical that the hearings will diminish Trump’s popularity at the grassroots, which is a big reason why they avoid commenting on what Trump knew and did before and during the attack. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (RW.Va.), an adviser to McConnell’s leadership team, said she attended some of the hearings but “did not learn anything very new.” “Yes, it’s important, but I’m not sure it will change anyone’s mind,” he said. Asked what it means for Trump if he is running for president in 2024, Capito said: “Let me go beyond 2022.” Recent polls suggest Trump’s support among Republican voters is waning, though he remains a formidable political force. A NBC News poll last month found that Republican voters are beginning to see their party as more important than Trump himself. A poll by the Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies found that 58 percent of Republicans described themselves as Trump’s biggest supporters of the GOP, compared with 38 percent just before the 2020 election. Political experts say Republican lawmakers should not ignore the impact of the hearings on hesitant voters. “The hearings are unlikely to move the needle among Republicans, but GOP senators should be concerned about independent voters. “These people are often influenced by new information, and there is a lot of graphic evidence here that the voter turnout could change enough to make a difference in the upcoming election,” said Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. “Trump has hit the country in general, and even among Republicans his numbers have dropped slightly,” West said. “It may not be enough to deny him the candidacy if he is full of people, but if he ends up in a battle first against one, his declining fortune can be problematic,” he added. Democrats believe Trump’s attempt to undermine the results of the 2020 election will be an issue in mid-2024, especially if he is on the ballot. “I think people who see this really see it as an ongoing criminal conspiracy. “Not only on Jan. 6, but we certainly see in Michigan trying to replace the ballot box workers and do things to really create chaos in the ballot box so that people have no confidence in the ballot,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow. -Mich.), The chairwoman of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. But Republicans say the testimony does not appear to have penetrated voters at home. “No one ever told me anything about it back home,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (RN.D.). “I do not know if I know anyone who has watched it. “Nobody ever raised it.” Kramer said he could not guess what the hearings meant for Trump’s political future because “to be honest, it’s not a very high priority in my life or in anyone’s life in my universe.” “Most people see it as a production specifically for television that is based on something that is not really a very high priority, given what is happening in the world,” he said. “I have not really looked at any news about it.” Senator Mike Rounds (RS.D.) said he attended the first day of hearings and parts of the second day. “I think they did a very nice production. “They spent their time effectively,” he said, but added that “they did not tell me anything I did not already know.” Senator Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump in his second trial for inciting insurgency, said Republicans who did not support the commission’s recommendation “basically say that this is a of everything. there.” The Hill’s Morning Report – Big Week: Guns; Hearings on January 6. Abortion? The note: The chances of a recession increase, posing a huge threat to Biden “I’m sure there are many who did not pay any attention to it, and then there are those who were absolutely and perhaps injured by the events of January 6 and so were stuck in it in the aftermath and through the referral process,” he said. Murkowski said various senators were trying to contact senior Trump administration officials to end the Jan. 6 violence and that it was interesting to learn more details about the events surrounding that day. But he does not know if there is a big difference in Trump’s political future. He said he would believe immediately after Jan. 6 that Trump’s influence in the Republican Party would be significantly reduced, but “a year later he clearly has a level of political influence that has not waned in many areas.”
