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As Donald Trump plans his criminal defense in the classified documents case, Republican candidates seeking to block his political redemption are slowly making political calculations.
In the simplest terms, the growing Republican primary field faces a basic question about the former president: Would they forgive him if elected to the White House?
The answer, however, is to tie some candidates to uncomfortable positions. Ultimately, they need to explain in very real terms to Republican voters why they are a better choice than the twice-impeached and now twice-impeached former president. Maybe later
Trump, meanwhile, is taking advantage of the right-wing backlash to the federal charges, to which he pleaded not guilty earlier this week. According to his campaign, he has raised more than $7 million in contributions since news of the indictment broke, including more than $2 million from a fundraiser at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. hours after his appearance.
And Trump still maintains a clear lead over his rivals. More than half, 53 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters support Trump compared to 23 percent of his closest challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to one report. Quinnipiac University Poll which ran from June 8th (the day the news of Trump’s impeachment broke) to June 12th. In an ABC News/Ipsos poll released after the impeachment, more than 60 percent of Americans thought the charges were serious, but only 38 percent of Republicans felt the same. in the same way.
Trump’s post-impeachment power among Republicans shows how much his base has bought into his narrative that he is the victim of political persecution and the charges are “election interference” by the Biden administration’s Justice Department.
However, it’s only been a week since news of the indictment broke, and it’s still very early in the primary. There is plenty of time for things to change and for the messages of GOP challengers to evolve.
At the same time, more Republicans continue to enter, raising the possibility that a divided field could benefit Trump, allowing him to win with a plurality as he did in 2016. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez entered the race Thursday , being offered as new. face for the GOP. It remains to be seen, however, whether a party so consumed with its past leader is open to someone new.
None of the Republicans running against Trump is accurately defending his retention of classified documents in the bathroom at Mar-a-Lago.
“If this allegation is true, President Trump was incredibly reckless with our national security,” former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said during an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday.
“Very poor judgment, no doubt,” businessman Vivek Ramaswamy told CNN of the allegations. “State of the Union” last sunday
But then Ramaswamy doubled down on his promise to pardon Trump and dared other candidates to do the same.
Haley is interested, arguing during a radio interview that a pardon is “less about guilt and more about what’s good for the country.”
“I think it would be terrible for the country to have a former president in prison for years because of a document case,” he said on “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show,” who has been asking the pardon question of all candidates “So I would lean in favor of a pardon.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence, speaking on the same radio show, is among Republicans who appear unwilling to commit one way or another to the pardon.
“Either we believe in our judicial process in this country or we don’t,” he said. “Either we uphold the rule of law, or we don’t.”
DeSantis, who has fallen in recent polls but remains closest to Trump, has remained remarkably quiet, although he said at an event in North Carolina that as a military lawyer he would have faced court martial “in a New York minute” for being classified. documents
DeSantis’ previous comments suggest the governor might agree to pardon Trump. He said he would be aggressive in considering pardons for the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters and has described the idea that the Justice Department should be treated as a nonpartisan organization as a “fallacy.”
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is barely registering in the polls, is taking a critical approach more in line with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has been anointed as the top Republican attorney general from Trump
“It’s offensive to me that anyone would be offering a pardon under these circumstances,” he told “State of the Union.”
At a time when Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House are calling for defunding the FBI, Hutchinson has a decidedly old-school, as in pre-Trump, view of the justice system.
“The Republican Party stands for the rule of law and our justice system,” he said, perhaps referring to Republicans’ many calls to cut FBI funding and prosecute Attorney General Merrick Garland. “We don’t undermine that with our rhetoric, making up facts and accusing the Justice Department of things for which there is no evidence.”
“We gain confidence in our institutions of democracy and justice, and we do not undermine them.”
But South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said the impeachment itself is eroding trust in institutions, which is much more reflective of the Trump-era GOP.
“We will not survive if the majority of Americans do not trust their justice system,” Scott said during a campaign appearance in Iowa, according to the Des Moines Register. About half of Americans in the ABC poll say they see the charges against Trump as politically motivated (47%), while 37% don’t and 16% say they’re not sure. Republicans overwhelmingly view the charges as political (80 percent say so), while a majority of Democrats (71 percent) say they were not politically motivated.
To get a sense of how far Trump’s views have transcended the party, consider that the Republicans he beat in 2016 who are still in office are now some of his strongest supporters.
“The damage this is already causing far exceeds the damage alleged in the indictment,” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a tweet.
CNN’s Dana Bash asked one of Rubio’s top aides from his 2016 campaign about that thought.
“It’s being framed in the conservative media as the Biden Justice Department against Donald Trump, the former Republican president,” Alex Conant said.
“And that put the candidates in an awkward position, because they’re either on the side of the Biden administration or the Trump administration,” he added.
Conant said Pence’s wait-and-see approach is the right call for a candidate, because it allows them to see what happens in the trial.
“This will play out over many, many months,” Conant said. “There will be other opportunities to confront the president (Trump).”
But ultimately, those candidates have to turn around and make their case, David Kochel, a former senior strategist for the Jeb Bush 2016 campaign, told Bash.
“A campaign is a competition, and you have to be able to say why it would be better and why Trump is flawed. Why he shouldn’t be president again,” Kochel said.
At some point, these candidates will need to do this more effectively.
This argument against Trump might focus more on eligibility than classified documents.
“Republicans have gone bad when he was at the top of the ticket,” Conant said. “This is a clear message for Republican candidates to lean on.”
