NBC national correspondent Steve Kornacki pinpointed the moment former President Donald Trump was certain to defeat Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the primary.
Trump won the Iowa caucuses on Monday night in a massive landslide. Trump won 98 of 99 counties, losing Johnson County by one vote to former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Trump received 51% of the vote, followed by DeSantis in second place with 21.2% and Haley in third with 19.1%. Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy withdrew from the race after the results were announced.
“We know core Republican voters are aware of the legal situation surrounding Mr. Trump, and we know there were all kinds of different areas here. “They consider the legal situation an attack, a politically motivated attack on Donald Trump.” You can decide for yourself whether that's fair or not, but take a look at this. I think this tells the story,” Kornacki said.
“This is the national Republican election trend line from the beginning of 2023 to this morning. Again, this was not that long ago, but I want to remind everyone that from the beginning of 2023, -The last few months of 2022, December 2022, midterms of 2022, when the Republican Party underperformed and President Trump underperformed. -When Mr. Trump was running, the Republican Party ally candidates lost key elections that resulted in them losing the Senate and other key offices, which is the national average, although DeSantis did not push him further than the national average. , polls in January and February 2023 routinely showed DeSantis within 10 points of Trump. (RELATED: 'The oldest thing I remember': Jake Tapper seems shocked by how quickly his network called Trump's win in Iowa)
“There are polls out there, and I'm going to go look for five of them right now, and DeSantis was leading Donald Trump nationally. I'm about to leave.'' They're tired of losing. They've been doing this for years. They're going to look for other options here. ” That's why so many candidates came forward. Then notice where the lines diverge. Let's see where the Trump line goes. Look at how the DeSantis line is a flat line with no one moving up. What week was it? That's literally the week Donald Trump was indicted on the first charges in Manhattan related to the Stormy Daniels case. ”
“When you look at these numbers, there's no question about it, and when you apply it to all the legal dates that have surfaced throughout the year, it's triggered a rally around the Trump effect among core Republicans. Again, they clearly see this as politically motivated. They see this as President Trump's opponents using the legal system to go after him. They responded that way by rallying around him. You can literally see that the week the first indictment happened.”
CNN's Harry Enten made a similar argument regarding the impact of Trump's lawsuit on the presidential election. Enten said Trump's best fundraising years coincided with his court appearances.
“Trump's two biggest fundraising days were one when he was in wanted court in a Manhattan courtroom in New York, and the other when Trump was incarcerated in the Fulton County Jail on the day of his infamous mug shot. On both days, he raised well over $1 million.”
