Former President Trump has reportedly been considering announcing his 2024 presidential bid earlier than expected — a desire that has grown in light of damning revelations during the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s public hearings that began last month, CNN reported.
According to CNN, Trump has told associates that he wants to launch another presidential campaign as early as this month due to President Biden’s low poll numbers and to make his potential GOP rivals aware of his candidacy.
Although Trump reportedly previously planned to wait until after the midterm elections in November to launch his campaign, the former president gained a deeper desire to expedite his campaign announcement following shocking testimony last week by Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Some Trump allies have reportedly privately conceded that the committee’s public hearings have caused more concern than expected as congressional investigators air sworn testimony from current and former Trump aides who refute his election fraud falsehoods.
CNN reported that some of Trump’s advisers have contacted his closest allies in recent days to give them a heads up that the former president is seriously weighing an earlier than expected announcement. One GOP source familiar with those conversations was reportedly told that Trump considered announcing as soon as the first week of July — but others in his orbit warned that there was a lack of a plan in place for a major campaign announcement and “doesn’t want this to be a dud,” a person close to Trump described to CNN.
Another source told CNN that it was unlikely the former president would announce his campaign without alerting the media beforehand.
In her testimony before the committee last week, Hutchinson detailed warnings that the then-President and his aides received prior to and on Jan. 6. Among the shocking revelations in her testimony, Hutchinson recalled Trump’s anger on Jan. 6 as he faced resistance from his inner circle when he demanded that he be able to march to the Capitol with his supporters after the rally on the Ellipse.
In the past week, Trump has taken to his knockoff Twitter app TRUTH Social to air his grievances amid his attempts to discredit Hutchinson’s testimony.
In a post to his TRUTH Social account on Monday, Trump lashed out at Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who serves as vice chair of the Jan. 6 Select Committee, a day after she signaled that the panel is leaving the door open to possible criminal referrals of Trump to the Justice Department.
The former president pushed false claims of being “cheated” in the 2020 election as he took aim at Cheney.
“Warmongering and despicable human being Liz Cheney, who is hated by the great people of Wyoming (down 35!), keeps saying, over and over again, that HER Fake Unselect Committee may recommend CRIMINAL CHARGES against a President of the United States who got more votes than any sitting President in history,” Trump wrote.
“Even the Dems didn’t know what she was talking about! Why doesn’t she press charges instead against those that cheated on the Election, or those that didn’t properly protect the Capitol?” the former president continued.
Following Hutchinson’s testimony, some Republicans have reportedly hoped in private that the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s public hearings may help put Trump’s electability in 2024 under more scrutiny, if not ruined.
