‘He’s Champing at the Bit… Wants to Claim Credit’: CNN’s Dana Bash Explains Why Trump Could Announce 2024 Run as Early as Tonight

CNN’s John King discussed chatter and reports of Trump insiders suggestion that the former president may announce his 2024 presidential run on the eve of the 2022 midterms on Monday.

King began by noting Trump will be in Ohio Monday night for a rally with GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate in the state, J.D. Vance, and noted the reports of a “possible 2024 presidential announcement.”

“Sources telling CNN the former president may announce his 2024 presidential bid tonight on the eve of the midterm elections,” King noted, adding:

Trump spent the weekend visiting Iowa, Pennsylvania and Florida, talking way more about himself than about Republicans on the ballot this year.

That includes constantly reminding other Republicans of his influence. That message directed not only at GOP leaders who might soon have a lot of power in Congress, but also at Republicans debating whether to challenge Trump for the 2024 nomination.

“Our reporters back at the table. On Friday, we were talking about people around Trump said he might announce as early as November 14th. Why would he do it tonight in Ohio before the midterm vote is even counted?” King then asked his panel.

“He is champing at the bit. He’s champing at the bit to get out there and to make it official,” replied CNN anchor Dana Bash.

“And most importantly, in the short term, he’s doing it for two reasons. One is to take credit and to sort of ride the wave, even if it’s just the house in the sort of immediate hours tomorrow to ride the wave of what he believes will be a win in the House and claim credit, because he’ll say that he endorsed a lot of the candidates who won,” she argued, adding:

Also, he’s seeing a lot of his potential opponent, opponents, Republican opponents out on the campaign trail, never mind DeSantis, but he’s seeing Nikki Haley out there. He’s seeing, you know, Chris Sununu out there, he’s seeing Mike Pence readying a book tour as soon as next week or the week after. And he wants to get ahead of all of that.

“Mike Pompeo is another one out there. Just yesterday, Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican senator, we can show you the headline, decided he’s not going to run in 2024,” King replied, adding:

I view that as making a conscious decision at the age of 45 to avoid the human chainsaw that got Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz in the last presidential campaign. His decision, wait it out. Wait it out and see what happens.

Watch the full clip above via CNN