Tag Archives: Complicates

US

‘Trump fatigue’ in New Hampshire complicates 2024 White House bid

Leave a comment

By Tim Reid

WEARE, New Hampshire (Reuters) – When Donald Trump trounced his Republican rivals in New Hampshire’s 2016 primary, the stunning win announced to other states the reality TV showman was a serious contender. Trump went on to capture the Republican nomination and then the White House.

But as the former president kicks off his bid to recapture the White House in 2024 with a speech in New Hampshire on Saturday – his first event in an early primary state – he will find the political landscape more treacherous than he did six years ago, according to party activists, members and strategists in the state.

In interviews with 10 New Hampshire Republican Party officials and members, some of whom worked on Trump’s 2016 primary campaign and all of whom have been staunch Trump supporters in the past, Reuters found only three who were sticking with him this time around – including the state chair, an influential Republican figure who is so enthusiastic about Trump he is stepping down on Saturday to help his campaign.

The rest cited exhaustion with Trump’s controversies, exasperation at the constant drama, and a desire to move on from Trump’s loss in 2020 with a fresh face who they thought would have a stronger chance of winning in 2024.

Trump’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

The public souring on the former president is a troubling development for Trump. A defeat could complicate his chances of winning the party nomination for president, analysts say, because New Hampshire often gives a candidate momentum as they head to other primary states.

A lack of enthusiasm for the former president and his prospects for winning in 2024 could hurt Trump because party activists do vital groundwork for candidates, such as knocking on doors and making phone calls to raise money and boost turnout.

Most of the New Hampshire party members who had cooled on Trump said they would prefer Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as the party’s standard bearer, although DeSantis has not yet said if he will launch a White House bid.

“Donald Trump right now is a distraction for the Republican Party in trying to go forward. Donald Trump has run his course,” said Brian Sullivan, 60, a Hillsborough County Republican Committee member who backed Trump in the 2016 primary.

“I would rather see someone else, like Ron DeSantis, in the race,” Sullivan said.

While he likes Trump’s policies and applauds his achievements in office, “he’s got so much baggage. I just don’t think he has what it takes to win the White House again,” Sullivan said.

The three Republicans still backing Trump said his voting base in New Hampshire remains enthusiastic, he has formidable name recognition, and that many Republican voters like his policy achievements while in office, giving him a strong record to run on, unlike other potential candidates.

The Trump campaign, in an email to supporters, touted a Jan. 24 poll from Emerson College Polling showing the former president leading DeSantis nationally among Republican voters, 55% to 29%.

Yet the willingness of Republican party members to criticize Trump in conversations with Reuters is striking. Some Republican party officials and members who have broken with Trump in the past have been subjected to blowback and online trolling from his supporters.

Lori Davis, 67, got into grassroots Republican politics because of Trump. Back in 2015 when he announced his candidacy, she was inspired. She worked on his New Hampshire primary campaign, knocked on doors for him, urged anybody she met to vote for him.

Not this time.

“I like Donald Trump. But he has gone too far polarizing. It’s going to be an uphill battle for him in this primary because of his divisiveness. People are tired of the drama,” Davis said at her home over a meal of burgers.

“I’m seeing that people want DeSantis. He has a lot of the Trump philosophy, but is not as bombastic, he’s not attacking people 24/7. People are tired of that. It gives them headaches,” Davis said.

`PEOPLE WANT A WINNER`

It is not just in New Hampshire where Trump faces potential headwinds. Some billionaire donors who helped fund his previous campaigns have not yet donated. They include hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer and his daughter, Rebekah Mercer. She has already donated to DeSantis’s political committee.

New Hampshire has an outsize role in choosing presidential candidates because it is the second nominating contest after Iowa’s caucuses.

While the winner of New Hampshire’s Republican primary has not won the state in a general election since George W. Bush in 2000, it is still viewed as a critical test in the nominating process.

Chris Maidment, chairman of the Hillsborough County Republican Committee, described the mood among many members as “Trump fatigue,” adding: “I’m definitely open minded this time round. There’s a lot of exciting potential candidates out there.”

A majority of candidates Trump endorsed in competitive races in November’s congressional elections lost to Democrats. During Trump’s four years as president after his 2016 victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, Republicans lost control of both chambers of Congress, before he lost the 2020 election to his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.

“People want a winner and the elections are about the future. Republicans want someone who can win and who is not going to be a pushover for the Left. Trump represented that before but I’m not sure he represents that now,” said Neil Levesque, executive director at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College.

In a poll conducted of likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire by Levesque just before last November’s election, Trump trailed DeSantis by 38% to 47%. Overall, 50% of the state’s voters had a “strongly unfavorable” impression of Trump, with just 22% a “strongly favorable” one.

Another complicating factor for Trump this time round is that independents can vote in New Hampshire’s Republican and Democratic primaries. If Biden runs again, the Democratic primary will likely be uncontested, and many independents may choose to vote in the Republican primary where their vote will have a bigger impact.

“Independents go where the action is. A lot of independents will vote against Trump. And that’s not good news for him”, Tom Rath, a Republican strategist in New Hampshire, said.

Polls in New Hampshire and elsewhere show Trump is unpopular with a majority of independents.

Despite signs of weariness with Trump, he will still be a formidable candidate in the New Hampshire primary, some party strategists said.

“He still starts 2023 as the frontrunner. He’s got name ID, a strong base of supporters. His influence is still fairly significant,” said Jim Merrill, a veteran New Hampshire Republican strategist.

Trump is the only Republican to declare his candidacy so far, although it is likely the field of rivals will grow this year. Others expected to jump into the race include DeSantis, Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, and Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor.

STICKING WITH THE REAL DEAL

For Steve Stepanek, a former state representative who was the first elected official in New Hampshire to endorse Trump in 2015 and is chairman of New Hampshire’s Republican Party, those potential contenders would be pale imitations of the real thing.

He remains a staunch supporter of the former president and is about to step down as the party chair because he wants to be involved with Trump’s latest campaign, he told Reuters.

A replacement will be elected at a party meeting on Saturday, where Trump will be the keynote speaker. It is not yet clear if Stepanek’s departure will loosen Trump’s grip on the party machinery.

Stepanek accused the Republican Party naysayers of being Republican insiders, not the ordinary voters who decide primary elections.

“Are you going to believe a candidate who says I’ll continue the Trump policies – or the man who is the Trump policies?”

(Reporting by Tim Reid in Weare, New Hampshire; Editing by Ross Colvin and Suzanne Goldenberg)

Read original article here

Sports

Jalen Hurts’ injury complicates NFC playoff picture, should Jets trade for Aaron Rodgers next offseason & why Robert Kraft needs to micromanage Bill Belichick

Leave a comment

Subscribe to You Pod to Win the Game

After not being in danger virtually all season, the top seed in the NFC is suddenly at risk. With a shoulder injury sustained by QB Jalen Hurts, likely elevating Gardner Minshew to the starting position for at least this week, the Philadelphia Eagles suddenly find themselves in a high-leverage divisional battle on Saturday afternoon against the playoff-hopeful Dallas Cowboys.

Charles Robinson is joined by Yahoo’s Charles McDonald & Jori Epstein to discuss what this means for the Eagles, Cowboys and the entire NFC playoff picture now that Hurts is likely to miss at least a week and may not even return until the playoffs in January.

Later in the show, the crew breaks down a bunch of interesting Week 16 games and the major storylines to keep track of heading into them. The Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Jets face off on Thursday night, and the spotlight will be on 2021 top picks Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson, the latter of whom is making his second consecutive start after being benched for the now-injured Mike White earlier this season.

The Cincinnati Bengals-New England Patriots matchup could mean a lot to Bill Belichick, who is staring down a rare losing season. Charles Robinson explains why missing the playoffs could mean new scrutiny for Belichick under owner Robert Kraft.

Finally, the gang closes out the show discussing the fading Seattle Seahawks taking on a defensively stunted Kansas City Chiefs crew and how the legend of Brock Purdy has a chance to grow (or crumble) against the Washington Commanders.

0:40 What Jalen Hurts’ injury means for Eagles-Cowboys and the NFC playoff race

10:45 All eyes on Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson in Jaguars-Jets

24:10 While Bengals cruise to playoffs, Kraft needs to have more control over Belichick’s decisions coming out of a rocky Patriots season

37:55 Seahawks try to keep playoff hopes alive against below-average Chiefs defense

46:10 The case against Brock Purdy going into 49ers-Commanders

Please support Terez Paylor’s legacy:

• Buy an All-Juice Team hoodie or tee from BreakingT.com/Terez. All profits directly fund the Terez A. Paylor scholarship at Howard University.

• Donate directly at giving.howard.edu/givenow. Under “Tribute,” please note that your gift is made in memory of Terez A. Paylor. Under “Designation,” click on “Other” and write in “Terez A. Paylor Scholarship.”

• Donate directly to the PowerMizzou Journalism Alumni Scholarship in memory of Terez Paylor

Check out all the episodes of You Pod to Win the Game and the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at Yahoo Sports Podcasts



Read original article here

World

Heat Wave Complicates Global Energy Crisis and Climate Fight

Leave a comment

Deadly heat and Russia’s war in Ukraine are packing a brutal double punch, upending the global energy market and forcing some of the world’s largest economies into a desperate scramble to secure electricity for their citizens.

This week, Europe found itself in a nasty feedback loop as record temperatures sent electricity demand soaring but also forced sharp cuts in power from nuclear plants in the region because the extreme heat made it difficult to cool the reactors.

France on Tuesday detailed its plan to renationalize its electricity utility, EDF, to shore up the nation’s energy independence by refreshing its fleet of aging nuclear plants. Russia, which for decades has provided much of Europe’s natural gas, kept Europe guessing as to whether it will resume gas flows later this week through a key pipeline. Germany pushed the European Union to greenlight cheap loans for new gas projects, potentially prolonging its reliance on the fossil fuel for decades longer.

The cascading effects of the war and the coronavirus pandemic on energy and food prices have punished the world’s poorest citizens the most. In Africa, 25 million more people were living without electricity now, compared with before the pandemic, the International Energy Agency estimated.

Meanwhile, in the United States, history’s largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, extreme temperatures scorched swathes of the South and West as prospects of national climate legislation collapsed in the nation’s capital. At the same time, global oil companies reported soaring profits as oil and gas prices shot up.

In effect, the world’s ability to slow down climate change has not only been undermined by the producers of the very fossil fuels that are responsible for climate change, but further challenged by deadly heat — a telltale marker of climate change.

At a global conference aimed at reviving climate action in Berlin, the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, called climate change the “biggest security challenge” facing the world and urged countries to use Russia’s war as an impetus to more swiftly switch to renewable energy. “Today, fossil energies are a sign of dependence and lack of freedom,” she said Tuesday. Germany relies on piped Russian gas for 35 percent of its energy needs.

At the same conference, the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, put it more bluntly. “We continue to feed our fossil fuel addiction,” he said.

The Berlin meeting took place against the backdrop of a bleak moment in global climate action.

Without climate legislation in Washington, it is all but impossible for the United States to meet its national climate goal, nor can it exert much diplomatic pressure on China to slow down its increasing emissions.

China produces the world’s largest share of planet-warming gases at the moment, and it plays a pivotal role in the planet’s climate future: It burns more coal than any other country right now, but it also produces the largest share of the world’s new green technology, including solar panels and electric buses.

A big question mark looms over whether European Union lawmakers will use the Ukraine invasion to accelerate their move away from fossil fuels, or if they will simply import gas from places other than Russia.

The stakes are high. The E.U.’s own climate law requires the 27-country bloc to shrink its emissions by 55 percent by 2030. More coal plants are slated for closure than ever before, and there’s no evidence that Europe is returning to coal for good, even though some countries are resuming operations at coal plants to meet immediate energy demands. “Coal is not making a comeback,” read the title of a report published last week by Ember, a research group.

E.U. lawmakers are also encouraging building owners to renovate older homes and businesses to improve energy efficiency. And under E.U. law, no new internal combustion engine cars are to be sold starting in 2035.

If anything, analysts say, the current crisis draws attention to not doing more sooner. “We have seen some progress, but if we look at the overall picture, it is not enough,” said Hanna Fekete, a climate policy analyst with the NewClimate Institute, an organization in Cologne that promotes efforts to tackle climate change. “We have missed so many opportunities for energy efficiency.”

The biggest effect of the global energy crisis is on the world’s ability to slow down climate change. The burning of fossil fuels is the main cause of global warming, as greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere trap the sun’s heat, raising global average temperatures and fueling extreme weather events, including record heat.

With rich industrialized countries like the United States and those in Europe unwilling to move away from fossil fuels, emerging economies are bucking pressure to do so. After all, they argue, it is the wealthier nations of the world — not the poorer ones — that are mostly to blame for the generations of greenhouse-gas emissions that are today wrecking the climate and disproportionately harming poorer people.

That point was made loud and clear by the South African environment minister, Barbara Creecy, at the Berlin conference this week. “Developed countries must continue taking the lead with ambitious action,” she said. “The ultimate measure of climate leadership is not what countries do in times of comfort and convenience, but what they do in times of challenge and controversy.”

Rich countries have not yet delivered a promised $100 billion in annual funding to help poor countries pivot to renewable energy. Many already indebted countries are falling deeper into debt, as they try to recover from extreme weather disasters exacerbated by climate change.

Russia, one of the world’s largest producers of oil and gas, invaded Ukraine at a time when energy prices were already on the way up.

At the end of last year, oil and gas prices were high, and rising, partly because U.S. oil and gas production had plummeted at the start of the coronavirus pandemic and never recovered.

Russia began limiting supplies to Europe as early as last September, helping to drive European electricity prices at the time to their highest levels in more than a decade. At the same time, demand for gas in Europe rebounded, as the economy picked up following pandemic shutdowns and mild weather led to a drop in wind-generated power.

In February, President Vladimir Putin of Russia invaded Ukraine, and Russia further cut gas flows to its European customers, starting with Bulgaria and Poland in April. Germany fears it will be next, as the country waits to see whether Gazprom, the state-owned Russian energy giant, will resume flows through the pipeline that links Siberian gas fields to Germany’s coast. It was shut down on July 11 for what is supposed to be only 10 days of annual maintenance.

Several European countries are currently racing to fill their gas storage tanks in time to have enough energy to heat homes and run industry in the winter. E.U. officials worry that if Russia does not resume gas flows, the bloc will not reach its mandated goal of 80 percent capacity by the start of November.

“The world has never witnessed such a major energy crisis in terms of its depth and its complexity,” the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, said last week.

Read original article here

World

Marcos presidency complicates US efforts to counter China

Leave a comment

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s apparent landslide victory in the Philippine presidential election is giving rise to immediate concerns about a further erosion of democracy in the region, and could complicate American efforts to blunt growing Chinese influence and power in the Pacific.

Marcos, the son and namesake of longtime dictator Ferdinand Marcos, captured more than 30.8 million votes in Monday’s election according to an unofficial count, more than double those of his closest challenger.

If the results stand, he will take office at the end of June for a six-year term with Sara Duterte, the daughter of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, as his vice president.

Duterte — who leaves office with a 67% approval rating — nurtured closer ties with China and Russia, while at times railing against the United States.

He has walked back on many of his threats against Washington, however, including a move to abrogate a defense pact between the two countries, and the luster of China’s promise of infrastructure investment has dulled, with much failing to materialize.

Whether the recent trend in relations with the U.S. will continue has a lot to do with how President Joe Biden’s administration responds to the return of a Marcos to power in the Philippines, said Manila-based political scientist Andrea Chloe Wong, a former researcher in the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.

“On the one hand you have Biden regarding the geostrategic interests in the Philippines, and on the other hand he has to balance promoting American democratic ideals and human rights,” she said.

“If he chooses to do that, he might have to isolate the Marcos administration, so this will definitely be a delicate balancing act for the Philippines, and Marcos’ approach to the U.S. will highly depend on how Biden will engage with him.”

His election comes at a time when the U.S. has been increasingly focused on the region, embarking on a strategy unveiled in February to considerably broaden U.S. engagement by strengthening a web of security alliances and partnerships, with an emphasis on addressing China’s growing influence and ambitions.

Thousands of American and Filipino forces recently wrapped up one of their largest combat exercises in years, which showcased U.S. firepower in the northern Philippines near its sea border with Taiwan.

Marcos has been short on specifics about foreign policy, but in interviews he said he wanted to pursue closer ties with China, including possibly setting aside a 2016 ruling by a tribunal in The Hague that invalidated almost all of China’s historical claims to the South China Sea.

China has refused to recognize the ruling, and Marcos said it won’t help settle disputes with Beijing, “so that option is not available to us.”

Allowing the U.S. to play a role in trying to settle territorial spats with China will be a “recipe for disaster,” Marcos said in an interview with DZRH radio in January. He said Duterte’s policy of diplomatic engagement with China is “really our only option.”

Marcos has also said he would maintain his nation’s alliance with the U.S., but the relationship is complicated by American backing of the administrations that took power after his father was deposed, and a 2011 U.S. District Court ruling in Hawaii finding him and his mother in contempt of an order to furnish information on assets in connection with a 1995 human rights class action suit against Marcos Sr.

The court fined them $353.6 million, which has never been paid and could complicate the possibility of him visiting the U.S. in the future.

The U.S. has a long history with the Philippines, which was an American colony for most of the first half of the last century before it was granted independence in 1946.

The U.S. closed its last military bases on the Philippines in 1992, but the country’s location on the South China Sea means it remains strategically important, and under a 1951 collective defense treaty the U.S. guarantees its support if the Philippines is attacked.

Even though the Biden administration may have preferred to work with Marcos’ leading opponent, Leni Robredo, the “U.S.-Philippines alliance is vital to both nations’ security and prosperity, especially in the new era of competition with China,” said Gregory B. Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“Unlike Leni, with her coherent platform for good governance and development at home and standing up to China abroad, Marcos is a policy cipher,” Poling said in a research note. “He has avoided presidential debates, shunned interviews, and has been silent on most issues.”

Marcos has been clear, however, that he would like to try again to improve ties with Beijing, Poling said.

“But when it comes to foreign policy, Marcos will not have the same space for maneuver that Duterte did,” he said. “The Philippines tried an outstretched hand and China bit it. That is why the Duterte government has re-embraced the U.S. alliance and gotten tougher on Beijing over the last two years.”

Marcos Sr. was ousted in 1986 after millions of people took to the streets, forcing an end to his corrupt dictatorship and a return to democracy. But the election of Duterte as president in 2016 brought a return to a strongman-type leader, which voters have now doubled-down on with Marcos Jr.

Domestically, Marcos, who goes by his childhood nickname “Bongbong,” is widely expected to pick up where Duterte left off, stifling a free press and cracking down on dissent with less of the outgoing leader’s crude and brash style, while putting an end to ongoing attempts to recover some of the billions of dollars his father pilfered from the state coffers.

But a return to the hard-line rule of his father, who declared martial law for much of his rule, is not likely, said Julio Teehankee, a political science professor at Manila’s De La Salle University.

“He does not have the courage or the brilliance, or even the ruthlessness to become a dictator, so I think what we will see is a form of authoritarian-lite or Marcos-lite,” Teehankee said.

The new Marcos government will not mean the end of Philippine democracy, Poling said, “though it may accelerate its decay.”

“The country’s democratic institutions have already been battered by six years of the Duterte presidency and the rise of online disinformation, alongside the decades-long corrosives of oligarchy, graft, and poor governance,” he said.

“The United States would be better served by engagement rather than criticism of the democratic headwinds buffeting the Philippines.”

Marcos’ approach at home could have a spillover effect in other countries in the region, where democratic freedoms are being increasingly eroded in many places and the Philippines had been seen as a positive influence, Wong said.

“This will have an impact on Philippine foreign policy when it comes to promoting its democratic values, freedoms and human rights, particularly in Southeast Asia,” she said. “The Philippines is regarded as a bastion of democracy in the region, with a strong civil society and a noisy media, and with Bongbong Marcos as president, we will have less credibility.”

___

Rising reported from Bangkok.

Read original article here

World

China floods: Death toll jumps to 302, as Covid outbreak complicates recovery

Leave a comment

Heavy rainfall hit the province of Henan on July 20, causing flooding in numerous towns and cities. Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of 12 million people, was one of the hardest- hit areas, with entire neighborhoods submerged and passengers trapped in flooded subway cars.

A total of 50 people are still missing across Henan, the vast majority of them from Zhengzhou, said Wu Guoding, the provincial deputy governor, at a news conference on Monday.

Of the total deaths, 292 were from Zhengzhou, Wu said. Most were killed from floods and landslides, while several dozen were killed from house collapses, and another 39 drowned in underground spaces including basements and garages.

The drowning deaths include 14 who died in a flooded subway line, where many passengers were stranded in subway cars up to their necks in floodwater, as fast-moving currents ripped through the network of underground tunnels.

Dramatic videos showing people clinging to ceiling handles to keep their heads above water shocked the nation and made headlines around the world. More than 500 passengers were evacuated from the subway line, authorities said several days after the initial flooding.

Another six deaths were from a road tunnel that had been fully inundated, trapping passengers in their cars inside. Rescue teams spent days pumping out floodwater from the tunnel in downtown Zhengzhou.

In a statement on Monday, China’s State Council said it was establishing a team to “investigate and evaluate” the flooding and deaths. The team will review if there was “dereliction of duty,” and will “hold people accountable in accordance with laws and regulations,” said the statement.

The flooding hit smaller cities and villages as well, with rivers swelling beyond warning levels and numerous reservoirs overflowing, affecting hundreds of thousands of people, according to state-run media. The severity of the flooding was captured by numerous videos shared on Chinese social media, which showed people and cars swept away in surging torrents.

Covid challenges

An outbreak of coronavirus has compounded the challenges facing Zhengzhou as the city struggles to recover from the devastating floods.
As of Monday, Zhengzhou has reported 13 locally-transmitted symptomatic cases, and 50 asymptomatic cases, which are counted separately, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.
Most cases are linked to an outbreak at a hospital, where janitors, medical staff and patients are among those infected. Only a few of the confirmed cases in Zhengzhou have no clear links to the hospital — but they either live nearby or have traveled in the hospital’s vicinity, according to state-run media Global Times.
Genomic sequencing has confirmed that the Zhengzhou cases are infected with the highly transmissible Delta variant — which the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned last week could spread as easily as chickenpox, even among fully vaccinated people.
As authorities continue cleanup, search and rescue, and investigation efforts into the floods, they must also now launch a mass testing effort for all residents, according to Global Times.

It’s not clear whether the Zhengzhou outbreak is linked to another cluster of Delta infections in the eastern city of Nanjing, which has spread nationwide in the past two weeks.

The ongoing outbreak — China’s worst in months — began in late July when nine airport cleaners in Nanjing were found to be infected during a routine test. Since then, locally-transmitted Covid cases have been reported in at least 16 provinces across China, including a tourist hot spot in the southern province of Hunan and the capital Beijing.

The country reported 90 new symptomatic cases and 23 asymptomatic cases on Tuesday, according to the National Health Commission. Most of the infections have been confirmed as the Delta variant, according to health officials in different regional news conferences.

Millions of people are now under restrictions on movement. Nanjing has launched several rounds of mass testing for its 9.3 million residents, and has locked down residential compounds with confirmed cases. Public spaces like bars, gyms and libraries are closed.

Similar measures and partial lockdowns have snapped into place in the city of Zhangjiajie, where a theater performance with thousands of attendees has fueled concerns of a super-spreader event. Restrictions have also ramped up in the national capital Beijing, which has banned people from medium- or high-risk areas from entering.

CNN’s Beijing bureau contributed reporting.

Read original article here

Sports

Report: Bears Have ‘Pushed Harder’ than Colts for QB Carson Wentz—But His Preference for Indy Complicates Trade Talks

Leave a comment

According to The MMQB’s Albert Breer on ‘The Herd with Colin Cowherd’, while the Chicago Bears have ‘pushed harder’ for former Philadelphia Eagles franchise quarterback Carson Wentz, the Indianapolis Colts remain his preferred trade destination—complicating ongoing negotiations:

“I think Chicago is the frontrunner this morning, and I do know that there is a feeling inside that building that (from) Ryan Pace, from the coaching staff, Matt Nagy, John DeFilippo, their pass game coordinator, who got two of the best years out of Carson Wentz in 2016 and 2017 as his quarterbacks coach, they believe that mechanically they can fix him,” Breer said during Monday’s show.

“Now, one of the big issues with Carson Wentz is that he hasn’t always responded well to hard coaching, so that’s something they’d have to get past because John DeFilippo was the bad cop in Philadelphia.”

“I think the issue right now Colin is where Carson Wentz wants to go. I think it’s become pretty clear he’d rather go to Indianapolis, and I think part of it now for the Eagles is going to be, ‘Okay, if our best return right now is Chicago over Indy, then we need to convince to Carson Wentz that, this is the only place you’re going, bud. And you need to buck up and accept this and realize the Bears are going to give you a good chance.’”

“And I can understand why Carson Wentz would be skeptical because look, Indianapolis, they are stable. Chris Ballard. Frank Reich. They’re going nowhere. In Chicago, you’d be going to play for guys whose jobs are going to be on the line in 2021.”

“But I think it’s pretty clear at this point, that the Bears have pushed harder than the Colts to get Carson Wentz, and the Eagles are probably going to get their best return with Carson Wentz going to Chicago. I think the last piece of it would become, ‘Can you convince Carson Wentz that it’s the right thing to do?’ because I think the Bears would at least like to know that Carson Wentz is on board before pulling the trigger on a trade.”

This sounds relatively on point from a number of recent reports too.

PFT and NBC Sports’ Chris Simms reported last week that Indianapolis was Wentz’ preferred trade destination. We also heard from NFL Analyst Ron Jaworski that the Colts had offered two second round picks and maybe a mid-round pick, but that Philadelphia general manager Howie Roseman has been holding out hope for more—presumably at least a first round pick.

There was an ensuing report that another NFL team had offered more than the Colts—with that unnamed mystery team more than likely being the Bears right now.

The ‘Carson Wentz to the Colts’ trade saga continues to carry on with no real end in sight.

That is, until the 3rd day of the new league year (which begins March 17), when Wentz is due a $10 million roster bonus—which by all indications, the Eagles simply won’t pay.

However, until that deadline, this ‘cat-and-mouse’ game between the Eagles and Colts may continue, where each side hopes that the other ultimately blinks.

That being said, Colts general manager Chris Ballard is notoriously prudent with his draft picks and has already said that his franchise ‘won’t act out of desperation’ for a starting quarterback this offseason.

This recent Breer report indicates that the Eagles can get more from the Bears than the Colts for Wentz, but if the high profile quarterback doesn’t actually want to play in ‘The Windy City’ then that creates a problem for Philadelphia—because Chicago general manager Ryan Pace won’t want to surrender high draft compensation for a player who doesn’t want to actually be there to lead his team—with his job already on the line in 2021:

It could ultimately force the Eagles to take the Colts’ lesser offer because of a loss of Philly’s leverage—if the Bears are forced to drop out because of Wentz’ unwillingness to play there.



Read original article here