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presidential candidate Donald Trump beat his last Republican challenger standing in the New Hampshire primary this week Nikki Haley vows to continue her campaign. But where are we with the presidential contest. We turn to political commentator Charlie
Sykes who knows Wisconsin politics as former host of a powerful conservative talk radio show out of Milwaukee for more than 20 years and co-founder of the bulwark podcast. We should know he's also a well known never trumper Charlie thanks very much for being here. Good to be back with you. So now with standing what Nikki Haley is saying is it a foregone conclusion that the Republican primary race is over and the general election race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden is on.
I think you have to assume that that's the case. This is Donald Trump's party. I think that that's been evident for some time and I think that the fact that so many elected Republicans are coalescing around him so quickly is an indication that they're expecting a
coronation this summer here in Milwaukee. What do you make of that?
You know it is extraordinary how quickly the Republican party has capitulated to Donald Trump once again I mean think about all of the off ramps they could have taken.
They could have taken off ramps after he was defeated they certainly could have taken off ramps after January 6 after the indictments and yet at each turn there's been a failure of will there's been a failure to coalesce around somebody else.
And here we are three years after the attempted overthrow of the pre and fair elections of 2020 and Donald Trump is poised to win the Republican nomination despite the fact that he is.
He is facing more than 90 felony charges a case stemming from a sexual assault of a woman back in the 1990s and fraud cases in New York and yet the Republican party is not blinking at the prospect of burning under his banner.
No in fact experts have told us that the criminal charges against Donald Trump make him more popular among his base not less.
What is happening?
Well I think two things are happening I mean number one I'm clearly the Republican party the base has rallied around him he has effectively played the victim card he has effectively made the case that he is being targeted.
But at the same time it is hard to imagine that as the criminal charges unfold over the next year that there are going to be very many swing voters who might have abandoned him in 2020 who are going to say you know this time around we think we're going to go with him.
So I think there's two narratives that I think are parallel at the same time.
Number one he is dominant in the Republican party but I think that you're also seeing that he's vulnerable in a general election he's vulnerable among moderates among soft Republicans and among independents and I think he saw that in both Iowa and
New Hampshire and I think that that's going to be that that's going to be more evident as we as we go through the year.
How do you think those dynamics play with the Wisconsin electorate?
Well in Wisconsin everything is on a knife's edge I mean these elections have been decided by 20,000 votes and Donald Trump lost in 2020 largely because he wasn't he didn't do as well as he needed to do.
In the suburbs you had a massive Democratic turnout but you also had a number of Republicans quite a few Republicans who voted for Republican candidates for the state legislature and for Congress but did not vote for Donald Trump.
Now I don't know whether they voted for Joe Biden but there was clearly an under vote and I think that the you know there's two big questions about Wisconsin.
Number one will Democrats be able to once again be able to have the enthusiasm to have a massive turnout particularly in Dane County.
And number two is Donald Trump can continue to underperform in the wild counties.
Waukesha Ozaki in Washington County and I suspect that he probably will but again every every election in Wisconsin is close and this one probably will be as well.
I think we're talking about soft Republicans and independents.
You think they'll vote for Joe Biden?
I don't know at this point but I think that there is there's evidence is a lot of those voters that are just not going to vote for Donald Trump.
Look I mean the MAGA base is going to stick with him there's no question about it.
I think you know the hardcore Republican voters are going to turn out nothing is going to change there but I think that there is a segment of the electorate that may not agree with Joe Biden's policy.
Joe Biden's policies may have concerns about his age may have concerns about you know where he's taking in the country but also recognize as Liz Cheney has said only one of the candidates on the ballot is going to shred the Constitution.
And so the question is what will they prioritize will they prioritize certain ideological single issues or will they step back and say we cannot have a convicted felon in the White House we cannot have a seditionist.
We cannot have somebody who is as erratic as is as Donald Trump returned to the presidency.
Or maybe people just stay home Charlie sex. Thanks very much. Thank you.
Thank you.
That was great. Thank you sir.
Well I didn't shed much light to anything you didn't know but we'll see what happens.
Yeah basically no one knows anything.
It's interesting to talk about. I didn't get to ask you my last question which is what's going to happen between now and November.
Who knows you know like what's this guy.
Who knows somebody could be convicted somebody could die somebody could who knows.
Wow well thank you so much for joining.
Okay thanks a lot.
Okay good seeing you again.