It’s not just about the 2020 election anymore.
The unhealed wound in American politics first opened by Donald Trump – a President who mounted a coup attempt after he was rejected by voters – is already tainting the 2022 and 2024 elections.
A rush of fresh evidence and the House January 6 committee’s expanding ambition to hold the ex-President to account over the Capitol Insurrection mean its probe, and new hearings in September, will crash headlong into midterm election season.
Trump all but declared a 2024 campaign this weekend, firing up a rally in Arizona with a new torrent of lies about his defeat to President Joe Biden and setting the tone for another democracy-rattling White House bid that he could officially launch at any moment.
Trump’s determination to run a 2024 campaign of vengeance rooted in his mountain of misinformation means it could be 2026, at least, before Americans experience a campaign that is not shaped by his inability to accept his legitimate loss nearly two years ago.
It is no coincidence, therefore, that leading members of the January 6 committee are becoming increasingly adamant about the need for Trump to pay a price now for his misdeeds after the 2020 campaign – before it is too late.