Conservative Political Action Conference Chair Matt Schlapp told Newsmax on Tuesday that up to 90% of the Republican Party is OK with former President Donald Trump being the 2024 GOP presidential nominee.
"This primary has been very good," Schlapp said during an appearance on Newsmax's "The Record with Greta Van Susteren." "You know what the conclusion is? We made it very clear that 80%, 90% – a high percentage – of Republicans are just fine with Donald Trump being the standard bearer again."
When host Van Susteren said that Trump "sat out the primary season," referring to the former president's refusal to participate in the Republican National Committee's primary debates, Schlapp said that wasn't exactly the case.
"He sat out the debates, but I think his campaign's done a very competent job of going out there and having events everywhere and being very active, putting out these policy videos," he said. "His numbers just keep going up and up. Now, the question Greta, for you, since you're the lawyer, is that because DOJ [Department of Justice] is so hell bent on either putting him in prison or keeping him off the ballot? Is that really his opponent and not these Republicans? I think that's part of this."
Contrasting the energies of Trump and President Joe Biden, Schlapp agreed with Van Susteren's assertion that Biden was ceding the energy of the campaign to his likely general election opponent.
"This is the Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush problem," he said. "When George H.W. Bush was running for president, he was the vice president, had all the accouterments of office and it actually turned out to be a negative when he showed up with the big motorcade and the big plane and everything else. It was almost like Iowa was saying, I don't know about this guy. The same thing for Jimmy Carter in the famous Rose Garden strategy, which is I'm just going to run for reelection by being the president – and he lost."
Even though Trump can do flashy things, like land in a helicopter, Schlapp said that the difference is that he's paying for those accouterments out of his own pocket – not the taxpayers'.
"They've all said he's not that rich, and he lies about how much he's worth, but he seems to have all the money it takes to buy everything he needs to live the lifestyle which I think everybody would like to live," he said. "As a presidential candidate, he's got assets people just don't have and he's footing the bill, which voters like."
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Nicole Wells ✉
Nicole Wells, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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