Global Courant
The Republican presidential field is growing by the week with candidates eager to push the party past Donald Trump. Yet few of the former president’s rivals tried to capitalize on Thursday’s latest charges against him.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina and several lower-level candidates turned their criticisms on the Justice Department and slammed federal law enforcement for years of investigations into twice-indicted and now twice-indicted Trump, who continues to face separate charges. investigate other matters.
Others, such as Nikki Haley, the former US ambassador to the United Nations; former Vice President Mike Pence; and former governor of New Jersey. Chris Christieremained silent or said they were waiting for more information to be released.
Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson was the only prominent Republican in the race to take a tougher stance against Trump, reiterating an earlier call for him to withdraw from the race.
A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted Trump on seven criminal charges related to his mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. He is the first former president to face criminal charges. Earlier this year, Manhattan prosecutors indicted him for his role in paying women hush money, while a jury later found him liable for sexually assaulting and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll in a civil suit.
“The corrupt Biden administration has informed my lawyers that I have been charged, apparently because of the Boxes Hoax,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform in announcing news of the indictment Thursday, adding that he had been asked to appear in U.S. District Court in Miami on Tuesday.
Two sources familiar with the case confirmed the charges, saying the allegations included false statements and conspiracy to obstruct. The New York Times was the first to report on the nature of the allegations.
DeSantis — its closest competitor, according to polls — sent out a tweet on Thursday who sympathized with Trump.
“The arming of federal law enforcement poses a mortal threat to a free society,” DeSantis said. “For years we have witnessed an uneven application of the law depending on political affiliation. Why so zealous about chasing Trump yet so passive about Hillary or Hunter? The DeSantis administration will be accountable to the DOJ, excise political bias, and end armaments once and for all.
Scott, who announced his candidacy late last month, spoke to Fox News shortly after news of the indictment broke, decrying federal law enforcement’s “arming” against Trump.
“We are reviewing each case based on evidence in America,” Scott said. “Everyone is presumed innocent, not guilty, and what we’ve seen in recent years is the Justice Department arming against the former president.”
Trump’s staunchest defenders expect, if not demand, such deference, even from those who want to beat him in the race for the GOP nomination. Charlie Kirk, the right-wing activist aligned with the Trump wing of the party, claimed on Twitter that other candidates should “suspend their campaign and go to Miami as a show of support”.
“If you don’t, you’re part of the problem,” Kirk added.
A Republican close to the Trump world, who was not authorized to speak on the record, questioned how “another Republican nominee (can) effectively attack Trump at this point as Joe Biden’s DOJ literally puts him in trying to stop a prison cell? ”
“How,” this source added, “do you land a single blow without looking like you are linking arms with Biden and (special counsel) Jack Smith and cheering on what they are doing?”
Trump’s rivals are getting used to having to respond to his legal risk. After being indicted in Manhattan in March, Trump also received more sympathy than contempt from his rivals, many of whom viewed the investigation as politically motivated. Last month, after a jury in New York found Trump liable for sexually assaulting Carroll, many GOP presidential prospects downplayed or evaded questions about the verdict. Christie, who at the time told Fox News that the case was part of an “unacceptable” pattern of behavior was an exception.
The outline of the GOP race has changed somewhat since then. DeSantis — who issued a sharp rebuke of “porn stars” in the days before Trump’s first indictment, only to swing the other way when the indictment came — launched his campaign with a not-so-subtle tone that Republican voters should move away from the drama of the Trump years. Christie, once a close ally, made his candidacy official this week, signaling his intention to attack Trump’s mistakes. Pence also entered the race this week, uncorking some of his harshest convictions to date.
But apart from Hutchinson, whose campaign has largely been pitched to Trump-weary voters, no one jumped at the chance to pillory him. Pence, who remained silent on Thursday, declined to answer Wednesday when asked by NBC News in Ankeny, Iowa, if Trump should end his campaign if a federal indictment comes.
Hutchinson didn’t hold back that question, denouncing Trump’s “deliberate disregard for the Constitution” and “his disrespect for the rule of law.”
“Donald Trump is entitled to the presumption of innocence,” Hutchinson said in a statement. But “the ongoing criminal proceedings will be a major distraction. This reaffirms the need for Donald Trump to honor office and end his campaign.”
Others argued for Trump to be pardoned, either by Biden or themselves, should they win the presidency.
“It would be much easier for me to win this election if Trump wasn’t in the race, but I stand for principles over politics,” businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, a long-shot candidate, said in a statement. “I commit to immediately pardon Trump on January 20, 2025 and restore the rule of law to our country.”
“Excuse Trump Now!” tweeted Perry Johnson, a Michigan businessman who was disqualified from last year’s GOP primary for governor because he failed to collect enough valid signatures and is now running a long-running presidential bid.
But Christie, who has criticized Trump in the first few days of his campaign, said he wanted to wait for the indictment to be made public before speaking his mind on the matter.
“As I said before, no one is above the law”, he tweeted“regardless of how much they were.”
