If this announcement had come from anyone other than Donald Trump I would have found it surprising, to say the least. While campaigning in Iowa, the former president took the stage and called on the rest of the Republicans challenging him in the primary to drop out and focus their efforts on defeating Joe Biden next year and pursuing action against the current president for the many apparent crimes being revealed during the ongoing investigations into Biden Inc. While it is undemocratic (with a small “d”) to demand an end to the electoral process, Trump was making some very good points about the lukewarm efforts to address the seriousness of the increasingly credible allegations of corruption against Joe Biden and his family. Needless to say, none of the other challengers responded by announcing an end to their campaigns. (AP)

At a moment of growing legal peril, Donald Trump ramped up his calls for his GOP rivals to drop out of the 2024 presidential race as he threatened to primary Republican members of Congress who fail to focus on investigating Democratic President Joe Biden and urged them to halt Ukrainian military aid until the White House cooperates with their investigations into Biden and his family.

“Every dollar spent attacking me by Republicans is a dollar given straight to the Biden campaign,” Trump said at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night. The former president and GOP frontrunner said it was time for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others he dismissed as “clowns” to clear the field, accusing them of “wasting hundreds of millions of dollars that Republicans should be using to build a massive vote-gathering operation” to take on Biden in November.

As to calling for what would essentially amount to a cancellation of the primary, that shouldn’t even be on the table. As several of us have said here repeatedly, Donald Trump is not “owed” the nomination simply because he previously held the office he is seeking again. He has to earn it just like anyone else. Even a sitting president is not “automatically” the default nominee (as Joe Biden is currently finding out) though few have faced serious challenges in the modern era.

Of course, none of that means that any of the other contenders legitimately stand a chance of winning, particularly if Trump doesn’t fall below 50% at some point. But it’s still a worthwhile exercise and it gives GOP primary voters the opportunity to get to know some of the other candidates who may well run again in coming years. It feels as if Vivek Ramaswamy is really building his credentials and proving his conservative bona fides. At his age, he could well have multiple opportunities to try again in the future.

Trump’s complaints about the lack of significant action against the Biden crime family are the part of the story that demands further attention. The House GOP has been doing an admirable job of investigating and exposing decades of corruption that would have otherwise remained hidden from the public. But it’s an uphill battle when the craven mainstream media continues to scoff at or completely ignore the story in the face of a growing mountain of evidence.

There was a time when the major newspapers and cable news outlets would pursue a story about alleged wrongdoing by Democrats even after most newsrooms were already leaning significantly to the left. The press dug into the Monica Lewinski story with abandon when Bill Clinton was in office. And that wasn’t even a story about political corruption or any conduct that should have been impeachable or prosecutable. Bill was just “a tough dog to keep on the porch,” as his wife once famously said. But the Joe Biden story is very different. The network of LLCs that his family set up to channel tens of millions of dollars into their personal accounts stinks to high heaven. And the sources of all that wealth carry the hallmarks of influence peddling, bribery, and – let’s just say it – high crimes and misdemeanors.

In a more fair and balanced democracy, we wouldn’t be having a conversation about how to beat Joe Biden in November of 2024 or which GOP candidate has the best chance. Biden would already be on his way out of office via either impeachment or the 25th Amendment and likely on his way to prison if there is any justice left in the country. So Donald Trump is at least right about that part. Let’s hope the rest of the party is paying attention.