Former GOP strategist and Lincoln Project adviser Stuart Stevens nailed it when he told CNN's Jim Acosta precisely what's wrong with the Republicans lined up who are supposed to be campaigning against Donald Trump. Acosta noted that the non-Trump candidates are "not really going after him in any sort of normal conventional way that we've seen in campaigns past," and Stevens agreed. And some of what Stevens had to say was depressing.

"What's going on here is that Donald Trump is giving the republican party what it wants, and this ultimately isn't about Donald Trump; it's about the party," Stevens said. "And there really is not a market for a non-Trump candidate. Chris Christie went out and proved that. Asa Hutchinson is still proving it. The party wants to be where Trump is."

"I can't imagine working for a candidate in a race, running against somebody that has 91 counts against them, and you don't even bring it up in a debate?" he continued. How sad and pathetic is that? It just shows you're really not interested in winning."

Biden will be the nominee.

"A lot of this is going to be about '28, who's going to be after Trump because Trump is going to be the Republican nominee," Stevens said. "I think Joe Biden is going to win this thing. I think Biden is going to win it more comfortably than he did last time, but this is just a terrible indictment to me, and I think a lot of us who used to work in the party of the depth the party has fallen to that it's embracing Trump with this kind of intensity."

Acosta asked what Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis's strategy was.

"I think their strategy was they hoped Donald Trump would get out of the race," he said. "That's not a strategy. That's like going into a game, and you hope the other team doesn't show up."

"I think that it just shows that they were confronting the reality that they had to run against Trump, but they knew if they ran against Trump, the base would not respond," he added. So it comes down to the question of why are you running. "If you're going to raise your hand and say you're still going to support, you're running against even if he's convicted of a felony for trying to overthrow the government. I mean, it's sort of an absurd process going on here, and I think it's playing itself out. Trump crushed these candidates."

I don't understand why Republicans are fearful of Trump. Is he going to post mean things about him on his struggling Truth Social platform? Yes, and so what? The horror. Will MAGA turn on them? Of course. They'll even turn on each other. MAGA wants to burn it all down. That's why they support Trump. Republicans will never get the stink of Trump off of them. Good luck with that. This all started with the Tea Party, and it snowballed into a dangerous imbecile becoming President of the most powerful country on Earth and a dysfunctional Congress.