NY Post editorial board: ‘Trump can’t look past 2020. Let him remain there’

The editorial board of the New York Post said in an op-ed published Friday that former President Trump is hanging on to the past, dwelling on the events of 2020 and Jan. 6, 2021.

The paper’s board said that the House investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and its hearings are a Democratic “campaign ad” and that the former president and Democrats refuse to move on.

“It’s time for Republicans to move on,” the board, which endorsed Trump in 2020, stated.

The op-ed comes after the House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 held its first public hearing during prime time on Thursday, making its case that Trump was at the center of a plot to remain in power following a loss to President Biden in November 2020.

The committee aired clips of testimony from those close to the former president, including his daughter and former senior adviser Ivanka Trump and former Attorney General William Barr.

Following the first hearing, Trump took to his social media app, Truth Social, to bash the event. He alleged that Ivanka was “checked out” after the 2020 election.

“Trump has become a prisoner of his own ego. He can’t admit his tweeting and narcissism turned off millions. He won’t stop insisting that 2020 was ‘stolen’ even though he’s offered no proof that it’s true,” the Post’s editorial board wrote.

“He insults Barr, and dismisses Ivanka as ‘checked out.’ He clings to more fantastical theories, such as Dinesh D’Souza’s debunked ‘2,000 Mules,’ even as recounts in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin confirm Trump lost,” the editorial board continued. 

Before the events of Jan. 6, Trump repeatedly made unsupported claims that the election was “stolen” or “rigged.” However, federal and state elections officials as well as Barr stated that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

The former president also publicly called on former Vice President Mike Pence to reject the election results while presiding over Congress’s certification process. Pence, at the time, signaled he would not do so.

“Meanwhile, reports that Trump was pleased that the Jan. 6 crowd chanted for Vice President Mike Pence to be hanged — a truly reprehensible sentiment — makes him unworthy for the office. Trump can’t look past 2020. Let him remain there,” the Post said.

The editorial board further touted possible 2024 presidential hopefuls such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as potentially viable candidates for the Republican nomination.  

Trump has not yet declared whether he will run in the next presidential election, and Republicans have been waiting to see what the former president decides before announcing their own decisions to run.