Democrats likely thought that former President Donald Trump would be incapacitated with a lot of lawfare and that he would be dropping in the polls as a result.
In fact, with each indictment, his strength in the GOP primary has grown. Some of the polls have also indicated Trump is leading Biden. The most recent Morning Consult poll has him up by a point, for example, with 6,000 registered voters.
Trump even joked about it during the Alabama GOP dinner on Friday, where he came out swinging hours after his arraignment, “Every time they file an indictment, we go way up in the polls. We need one more indictment, and this election is closed out–no one even has a chance.” It’s in part the rallying effect of Republicans who don’t like the targeting and want to fight the weaponization of government.
But as it turns out, the effort to throw everything including the kitchen sink at Trump legally — even things like the very flawed Jack Smith indictment that seems to be going after Trump for his speech — seems to be having the opposite effect of what was intended. Instead, people are starting to tune out the indictments/actions against Trump, according to Google Trends.
The public’s attention to former President Trump’s legal drama has declined with each subsequent indictment, according to new data pulled across television, social media and search activity.
The biggest spike was the first indictment, the Alvin Bragg indictment, which many legal experts tagged as ridiculous, and the spikes have been smaller ever since.
[T]he mind numbing repetition of it all… is supposed to do just that: numb the mind so that sense making feels impossible and paying attention seems pointless,” New York University’s Jay Rosen told Axios in an email.
“There’s a name for it: flooding the zone with crap.”
That sounds like the right description for it all.
Now, things might change as the cases proceed, depending on what comes out or if Trump is convicted in any of the ridiculous efforts. It’s anticipated that they may have a fourth indictment coming soon in the Georgia matter, which is another case that seems to be on pretty shaky ground.
But right now, it looks a lot like they’re overplaying their hand, and people are tired of it. When you try to throw everything up against the wall, people start seeing the pattern, and they tend to shut it out. That’s likely why folks like Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) are agitating to get the federal trials televised, likely hoping that will spark interest and that they can spin the proceedings. But that tactic didn’t work out very well for them with the Jan. 6 Committee hearings, so they may not want to push that effort here.
As I reported previously, people are also starting to look at things like Joe Biden’s old comments regarding the prosecution of Trump and are concerned about the potential targeting of a political opponent by the Biden administration. Even Trump’s Republican opponent Vivek Ramaswamy decried the latest indictment and called out the move toward a “banana republic” of going after political opponents.
They may find that ultimately it comes back to bite them big time come the election.