Former President Donald Trump has been voted out of the White House and removed from Twitter, which has considerably reduced his presence in the public psyche.
That is about to change. On Sunday afternoon, he will give the culminating speech at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, and he will do so as a still-dominant figure in Republican politics.
The “Trumpublican” faction of the Party remains loyal to Mr. Trump, and unmoved by evidence of his role in the insurrection, and unconcerned about investigations into the former President on several fronts.
A national Quinnipiac University poll conducted this month has 76% of self-identified Republicans saying they believe there was "widespread fraud in the 2020 election."
CPAC opened this morning with speeches from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, two of several Republican Presidential probables like Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton and Mike Pompeo who will also speak this weekend, and who are anxious to carry the mantle of Trump voters, if Mr. Trump decides not to run in 2024...
Tom's guests today are Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, Pulitzer Prize-winners with The Washington Post and the authors of a bestseller that sits high atop the mountain of books that have chronicled the dysfunction and chaos of the Trump Administration. It’s called A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America. It was published early last year, and it has just been released in paperback, updated with new reporting.
Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker join us on Zoom…
_______________________________________