 The Hill published an interesting story about insiders within the Republican Party, not necessarily Trump insiders per se, but GOP strategists and operatives who are absolutely expecting Donald Trump to be indicted, and they're expecting that indictment to come very soon after the election. The Hill reports Republican aides and strategists privately expect Attorney General Merrick Garland to pursue an indictment of former President Trump within 60 to 90 days after election day, predicting the window for prosecuting Trump will close once the 2024 presidential campaign gains momentum. Republican aides on Capitol Hill and veteran party strategists emphasize that they don't have any inside information on what Garland might do, but they say the Attorney General is under heavy pressure from Democrats to act and the deadline for pursuing an indictment is fast approaching. Now for the most part, I agree with them that if an indictment is going to come, it needs to come soon because Trump is about to announce his presidential campaign. However, I'm not necessarily as certain as they are that an indictment is a foregone conclusion. I genuinely don't know. I'm at like 50-50. I can't tell you whether or not he will be indicted. Should he be indicted? Yes, he should be in prison for the rest of his life. But will that lead to an indictment? I genuinely don't know and I'm not going to try to make a prediction. However, they're fairly confident without any insider knowledge, mind you, that this indictment is coming. But what's really interesting about this story is that they're not only predicting an indictment, they're expecting it to be good for Donald Trump. Now, here's what they say about the indictment and how they believe it could be beneficial politically. The article continues, a couple of weeks after the election, I assume that Garland will indict Trump, said one veteran Republican aide expressing a sentiment shared by several other GOP aides and strategists. A second Republican aide warned, an indictment could actually end up helping the former president politically. People have been talking about splintering support and dampening enthusiasm among Republican voters for him. An indictment could actually galvanize and reunify Republicans around him, the aides said. Predicting the Republican backlash to an indictment would be stronger if Garland brings an indictment later in the 2024 election cycle. There's a substantial risk in waiting, the source added. And aides and strategists point out the party base quickly rallied behind Trump after the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago estate in early August. I think that there is probably some truth to that. I think that seeing Trump get indicted, we're going to see the inevitable narrative that this is a political witch hunt and Biden is weaponizing the Justice Department. And I think that's going to be persuasive to all portions of the GOP's base. The anti-Trump Republicans, the Trump Republicans, not that there's like a huge swath of anti-Trump voters still left in the GOP, but I think that a lot of them, whether or not they're rooting for DeSantis or someone else or Trump, they're going to find that persuasive. And I think that as a result, finding that narrative persuasive might lead to increased sympathy for Donald Trump. But again, I think that timing is going to really determine everything, because in the event this indictment comes later, perhaps during a GOP primary, well then individuals like DeSantis could use that against Donald Trump and make an electability argument and claim, well, he's under investigation, he's being indicted, perhaps he's not the best person to go up against Biden or whoever the Democrats choose. I think that argument of, hey, he's not electable because he's indicted would certainly resonate with Democratic Party voters, but would it resonate with Republican Party voters? I don't necessarily think so. Perhaps some of them, but not enough to defeat Donald Trump. So to a large part, I agree with what these GOP strategists are saying. I'm not as convinced that the indictment is coming very soon as they are. But in terms of this helping Donald Trump, it's very, very possible and they have an interesting argument because, again, we're talking about a group of voters who are completely brainwashed by right wing media and propaganda. So they will believe anything. So is it that out of the question to think that they believe this, that Trump is the target of a witch hunt? No, I think it's very likely that they believe that narrative and they fall for it hook, line and sinker. So whether or not this helps Trump, though, I don't think that should weigh on whether or not he is indicted. Even if it benefits him politically, I mean, there's massive evidence showing that he committed a plethora of crimes. So this decision as to whether or not he should be indicted shouldn't be a political decision. It should be a legal decision. And so I don't want Merrick Garland to think, well, this might help him. So I'm not going to indict him. You just have to follow the evidence and then make a decision based on that. Whether or not this benefits him politically is a different story entirely. I think it could actually help him. But either way, I think that everyone can agree that this is going to be a shit show. If he does get indicted, then there's going to be a meltdown and lots of conspiracies from the right. If he doesn't get indicted, then those of us who want him to be indicted because he should be indicted, well, we just have further evidence that the system is broken and it doesn't work. And elites can commit crimes with impunity and they're never held accountable. So either way, it's going to get ugly and the 2024 election is going to be a train wreck. I just honestly, I'm not ready for it. It's going to be a disaster. You know, putting aside the indictment stuff, there's going to be claims of election fraud regardless of Trump wins the election or not. It's going to be ugly and nasty. And I'm just dreading it. I'm just dreading it. I'm dreading the 2022 election, which is like a couple of weeks away because we already know there's going to be a bunch of mini stop the steel shit shows happening across the country. So I'm just, I'm not mentally prepared for what the right is going to do to our democracy. But either way, it's happening and we all better buckle up because it's going to get ugly fast. So whether or not Trump is indicted again, I don't know. But I think that there's probably some truth to what these strategists are saying about the GOP base kind of uniting around Donald Trump. If they view him as a sympathetic figure, who's the target of a political witch hunt? I think that's probably going to be what happens ultimately, if I'm being honest. So yeah.