GOP senators: Trump hush money trial won’t move political needle

Republican senators, whose hopes of winning the Senate majority are riding on former President Trump’s strength as a general election candidate, say the hush money trial beginning this week in Manhattan will have little impact on the presidential race.

Senate Republicans by and large predict that few votes will change in November even if Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) convicts Trump of some or even many of the 34 felony counts he faces for falsifying business records in connection to payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels.

Some Republicans believe that Trump could even benefit politically, pointing to his surge in the polls when Bragg first unveiled the multicount indictment a year ago.

“I think people have processed the fact that Donald Trump paid a porn star and committed adultery and misreported that on his tax forms. I think people assume that’s the case, and it’s not going to move the needle,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), one of Trump’s most outspoken critics, who doesn’t plan to vote for the likely GOP presidential nominee.

Still, Romney said Bragg made “a poor political choice” in bringing what Republicans view as a weak case against Trump.