Rep. Fred Upton on CNN Sunday with Dana Bash
Michigan Republican Congressman Fred Upton, who voted to impeach President Trump, says the Jan. 6 hearings are resonating with moderate Republicans and Independents. Still, he says he expects the ex-president to run in 2024 and have a good shot at winning.
Appearing Sunday on CNN's "State of Union" with Dana Bash, Upton says there are obviously different factions of the party loyal to Trump and are ignoring the hearings.
"I have said from the beginning, I think that Donald Trump is going to be a candidate in 24," said Upton, 69, of St. Joseph, who has been in Congress since 1987. "The voters still like him a lot today...He certainly entertains a majority of the Republican base and will be hard to stop. Frankly, as we look at the economy, we look at gas prices and all these different things, folks are not really happy with the Biden administration, which is why he is mired in a level even below where Donald Trump was in at this point in his tenure."
He went on to explain that "you've got the base voters that are really upset that things didn't go their way and they're loyal as can be" to Trump.
He said he's disappointed that witnesses who testified before the Jan. 6 committee didn't speak out sooner about Trump's behavior after the election.
"The regrets that I see is, some of the folks that they've talked to, who now have their answers being made public; where have they been for the last year and a half? Why weren't they saying what they're saying now, a year and a half ago?"
Upton and U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer from Grand Rapids are the two GOP Congress members from Michigan who voted to impeach Trump in 2021. Meijers is challenged in this summer's GOP primary by John Gibbs, who has been endorsed by Trump.
Gibbs was a conservative commentator before becoming a poltical appointee to the U.S. Department of House and Urban Development under Trump.
