Former President Donald Trump still leads the Republican primary field by double digits, even if hypothetically convicted of a crime, a recent Yahoo!/YouGov survey found.
The survey asked Republicans and Republican-leaners, “If Trump is convicted of a serious crime in the coming months, who would you vote for in your state’s 2024 Republican primary?”
In that scenario, Trump still maintains a double-digit lead among his GOP challengers with 35 percent support. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis comes 15 points behind with 20 percent support, followed by anti-woke businessman Vivek Ramaswamy (nine percent), South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott (five percent), and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Vice President Mike Pence, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, all of whom see three percent support each. Another 17 percent say they are “not sure.”
Notably, the survey was taken August 17-21, 2023, prior to both the first Republican primary debate and the release of Trump’s now-famous mugshot.
Trump did not participate in the debate and instead engaged in counter-programming, as his interview with Tucker Carlson dropped five minutes prior to the start of the 9:00 p.m. EDT debate.
Most post-debate analysis, however, ceased Thursday evening after all attention turned to Trump’s arrest. He was booked by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office on charges stemming from District Attorney Fani Willis’s indictment — his fourth indictment in a matter of months.
Trump shared an image of his mugshot to social media, including X, formerly known as Twitter, with a message: “ELECTION INTERFERENCE. NEVER SURRENDER! DONALDJTRUMP.COM.”
Trump spoke to reporters following his arrest, deeming it a “very sad day for America.”
“This should never happen…You should be able to challenge an election. The election was a rigged election, a stolen election, and I should have every right to do that,” Trump said, noting that he is far from the first individual in history to question the results of an election.
Trump said:
As you know, you have many people that you’ve been watching over the years do the same thing, whether it’s Hillary Clinton or Stacey Abrams or many others. When you have that great freedom to challenge, you have to be able to. Otherwise, you can have very dishonest elections.
“What has taken place here is a travesty of justice. We did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong. And everybody knows it. I’ve never had such support, and that goes with the other ones, too,” Trump added.
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