Friday, CBS’s Catherine Herridge interviewed former Attorney General Bill Barr on the January 6 investigation. Towards the end of the interview, Barr made an interesting statement. The segment is cued up to the quote for your convenience.

The setup from Herridge was, “What is the future of the Republican Party?”

I think the future is bright. I see 2024 like setting up another 1980 where Reagan won two terms, and then Bush won a third term. And that’s what I think you need to really Make America Great Again. Decisive victory in reaction to the excesses of the progressive Democrats. And I think we could do that again a really achieve decisive victory with the right candidate. But i don’t think Trump is that candidate.

The day that he’s elected, he’ll be a 78-year-old lame duck who is obviously bent on revenge more than anything else.

There is a lot to unpack there.

The GOP hasn’t faced a weaker Democrat in a presidential election since the 80s. Our opponent will either be Joe Biden or an equally weak candidate. Among Democrats with strong national name recognition, Gavin Newsome is the favorite, in my view, to run if Biden is on a ventilator or fingerprinting with his own feces when 2024 rolls around. The second string is such luminaries as Pete Buttigieg, fresh off his “chest feeding” experience, or the “woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit” who uses she/her pronouns. All evidence is that 2024 is ours to lose, assuming all only legal votes are cast and then are counted once.

On our side, the main question is who will run. I think anyone would agree that President Donald Trump is the GOP frontrunner right now, and the nomination is his if he decides to seek it. That said, he’s obviously a polarizing figure, and many get a bad case of liquid bowels when his name is mentioned (New York Post Sets the Stage for Another Flight 93 Election by Declaring President Trump ‘Unworthy’ to Be President). Barr is very much in that category.

Let’s take his points in reverse. Everything he says is true. He will be 78, not ideal though a relative spring chicken in relation to Joey SoftServe. And he will be bent on revenge. His team has announced as much; see Trump Team Plans Post-Election Purge of Department of Justice, FBI, and the Intelligence Community. How could you blame him? To tell you the truth, I could easily be convinced to vote for President Trump again if he ran on a promise to gut the federal bureaucracy and return it to its role as an apolitical servant of the people rather than a vicious, spiteful, and thuggish master.

I think Barr is mainly correct about the promise 2024 possibly holds. Twelve years is a helluva long time in presidential politics. Still, a president who rejects CRT and transgenderism should be able to win two terms so long as there is a focus on ballot integrity and making all legal votes count.

Can we have the vengeance we want and two or more terms?

Can we get two or more terms if we don’t crush the Democrat stormtroopers within the bureaucracy?

Should we just settle for vengeance and play the future by ear?

If vengeance is our goal, who is the candidate most likely to succeed in that endeavor?

Can Donald Trump be trusted to exact vengeance in a way that will not destroy GOP chances for 2028? Can anyone?

I don’t pretend to be a pollster, so I don’t know the answers to these questions. On the one hand, I don’t think President Trump is the guy capable of setting up a GOP win in 2028. I don’t think his second term will be much less of a political sh**show than was his first. Let’s face it. President Trump likes the combat and the controversy. On the other hand, I’m not sure what winning in 2024 is worth very much unless gutting the FBI, DOJ, and the intelligence agencies is a top priority.