Newsmax’s Morris Serves Up Long-Form Trump-Fluffing

In addition to his usual Trump-fluffing on Newsmax TV, Dick Morris serves up longer-form Trump-fluffing on the Newsmax website. In a Dec. 11 column, he complained about how Donald Trump’s upcoming criminal and civil trials will interfere with his campaign:

Donald Trump may not be imprisoned during the 2024 election campaign, but he will be under a form of “house arrest,” confined to a court house in Washington, D.C. for the opening three or four months of the campaign.

[…]

To keep the presumptive Republican candidate for president from campaigning for the likely three or four month duration of the trail constitutes its own form of election interference.

During his trial, presidential candidate Donald Trump, who by then will likely have clinched the Republican Party nomination, will be confined to a courtroom in Washington, unable to campaign, answer questions, meet with voters or explain his plans for a second term.

What could be more of an interference with an election than this?

This trial and these charges could easily be adjudicated after the 2024 election without damage to the government or to the defendant.

The only point in bringing the case to trial now is that Democrats hope that Trump will be convicted and then rejected by the voters.

Morris marveled in a Feb. 28 column: “Despite four criminal indictments and almost $500 million in civil fines, why is Donald Trump still winning? And in most polls widening his margin?” Among the reasons he listed was that “The Charges Against Trump are Just Not That Serious”:

So he may have overestimated his assets to secure a bank loan that he repaid promptly and in full.

So what?

And he may have spoken too. harshly about a woman he was accused of sexually harassing, but not of raping.

So what?

And he may have paid Stormy Daniels from the wrong bank account.

So what?

And he may have retained possession of archived classified documents for too long and then been less than forthcoming in producing them.

So what?

The only two charges that are serious enough to threaten his lead among the voters are those at issue in Jack Smith’s federal indictment and Fulton County Ga.’s Dist. Atty. Fani Willis’ prosecution of Trump and some of his associates.

But Willis has problems of her own and may well not be in position to pursue her case.

It seems she has a lot more to hide than our nation’s 45th president does.

And Jack Smith’s prosecution may be for a crime about which Trump had immunity!

Even without immunity, it’s obvious to everybody that Donald Trump did not lead a revolution or attempt to overturn the results of an election by force.

The demonstrators who stand accused of acting on his behalf were all unarmed.

Never mind, of course, that Morris had spent a column lamenting that the charges are serious enough to keep him off the campaign trail. Also, at least one protester had a gun, and rioters were, in fact, armed with numerous weapons.

Morris went on to cheer that “The Prosecutions of Trump Eclipse All Other Questions in the Campaign and Leave No Room for Voters to Make an Honest Judgment About Trump’s Abilities and Record”:

Trump’s prosecutors and political opponents have indulged in such extreme rhetoric and made such far out accusations that they have no credibility.

So, having, in effect, accused Trump of rape, financial fraud, compromising our national security, and fomenting an insurrection that would have ended our democracy, the prosecutors have yelled “Wolf!” for too long and too loudly to be taken seriously.

Trump’s tormentors devoutly believe that if he is convicted of a crime, he cannot win. Well, littering and jay-walking are crimes, too. But none of the crimes at issue here are sufficiently serious to warrant his defeat. Merely attaching the label “convicted criminal” to Donald Trump will not cost him the election.

There may, indeed, be a case to be made against Trump’s reelection.

• Did he handle COVID-19 properly?
• Did he alienate our allies?
• Did he add too much to the federal debt?
• Has he failed to take global warming seriously?

But . . . there is no room or oxygen to ponder these issues. They have been overshadowed and drowned out by the criminal charges against the former presdnt [sic].

He concluded by declaring: “So the question is not why Trump is ahead, but why he is not even further ahead.” But despite all that, Morris wrote a March 1 column lecturing the easily distracted Trump to stay focused on his campaign:

After a strong march through the Republican primaries in which he made no mistakes, we enter a void of four and a half months before the GOP nominating convention.

With the discipline of weekly looming primary contests, the former president toed the line and made no mistakes. No side swipes at non combatant politicians.

No obiter dicta.

No name calling (except for his direct opponents). A disciplined campaign.

Now political entropy can set in.

Attacking Biden is a bit like kicking a corpse. For a restless mind like Trump’s, boredom can can set in. So can incendiary, self-immolating rage against the ongoing judicial persecution against him.

Trump needs a dynamic agenda of new policy proposals to avoid biting himself.

[…]

Winning can lead to delusion and over-confidence. Keep your eye on the ball. Mr. President. We still have a ways to go before we reel this baby in.

Morris also gushed that “Trump has brought a new flavor to his campaign by injecting new and compelling issues that often straddle the partisan divide like: digital currency, internet privacy, human trafficking, fentanyl, forced unionization, gender craziness, education standards, affirmative action, alternatives to leftist colleges and universities, preserving police immunity from legal harassment, overuse of antibiotics, genetic alteration of crops, overuse of pesticides, tariffs to fund deficits reduction and debt repayment, opposition to the takeover of healthcare by the World Health Organization (WHO), and . . . empowering parents in the classroom,” which he insisted “will serve to control the public dialogue and debate. And — just as important — they will keep Donald Trump’s fertile mind in the game and on the ball.”