While most of former President Donald J. Trump’s Republican rivals have closed ranks around him since his indictment in the classified documents case, two of them, Nikki Haley and Tim Scott, have begun to distance themselves to report only to the Department of Justice.
In a Fox News interview Monday, Ms. Haley, the former South Carolina governor who served as ambassador to the United Nations under Mr. Trump, went on to say that the Justice Department and the FBI had lost credibility with the American people, but she also acknowledged the gravity of the situation. charges against Mr. trump
“Two things can be true at the same time,” said Ms. Haley, adding that if the accusation was accurate, “President Trump was incredibly reckless with our national security.”
Ms. Haley’s opening statement on Friday, a day after the federal indictment of Mr. Trump, was an unconditional defense of his boss.
“This is not how justice should be served in our country,” he said at the time Twitter. “The American people are exhausted by prosecutorial overreach, double standards and the politics of revenge.”
Mr. Scott, a senator who is also from South Carolina and, like Ms. Haley, significantly follows Mr. Trump in the Republican polls, he also changed his tone.
During a campaign appearance Monday in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Mr. Scott acknowledged the seriousness of the charges against Mr. Trump as he accused the Justice Department and President Biden of targeting Republicans to prosecute them.
He described it as a “serious case with serious allegations,” he said The mail and the messenger Charleston, SC newspaper
But in the initial reaction of Mr. Scott on Thursday, a Fox Newshe focused solely on asserting that the Justice Department had become a weapon against Republicans.
“Today what we see is a justice system where the scales are weighted,” Mr. Scott.
His stances are still far removed from those of another 2024 candidate, former governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, who has sought to position himself as the candidate most willing to attack Mr. Trump.
Mr. Christie reconnected with Mr. Trump during a CNN town hall event on Monday night called him “angry” and “vindictive” and said he believed the indictment was “a very narrow, very detailed, loaded indictment evidence. and the behavior in there is horrible.”
