The pending legal charges against former US President Donald Trump are worrying all Republicans, who are divided over the impact the case will have on the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
This week Trump appeared in court for the second time in two months to respond to new allegations related to 37 cases, for diverting classified documents, pleaded not guilty and insisted he is the target of prosecution policy .
Trump – who is running for the White House in 2024 – thus became the first former president of the United States to be criminally charged by federal prosecutors for misappropriating confidential documents and the Justice Department’s efforts to data recovery was hindered. .
In the hours following Trump’s entry into court in Miami, some leading Republican Party figures made public their embarrassment at the situation, including former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who criticized the former president for he had not corrected the redirect error. classified documents.
“We can all make mistakes by having taken documents to the wrong places. But when we realize this, we must return them immediately”said the head of US diplomacy during Trump’s presidential term.
Republican congressman Ken Buck, elected to the House of Representatives by the influential state of Arizona, also made it very clear in commenting on Trump’s trials that he would not feel comfortable supporting someone who has been convicted.
In April, the former president appeared in court in New York to respond to allegations of misusing campaign funds to bribe a porn film actress, but this week’s appearance in court in Miami is involved in a much more sensitive case, which implies the possibility that national security has been compromised.
The former president has other lawsuits pending, one involving his responsibility for his supporters’ invasion of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, which will have a particular impact on American public opinion.
These lawsuits divide Republican leaders between those who underestimate the relevance of the lawsuits and share Trump’s version that everything is nothing more than political persecution, and those who fear that conducting investigations will damage the party’s image and raise the possibility of an election victory in 2024.
After the Miami hearing, Senator JD Vance, who was endorsed by Trump in the 2022 midterm elections, did not hesitate to respond to the allegations against the former president, denouncing that he has become “the latest victim of the Department of Justice, which cares more about politics than law enforcement”.
Similarly, Republican nominee Nikki Haley, a former ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration, said the former president was “reckless with national security,” if the allegations in the recent indictment are true.
In a more neutral position was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said he would not comment on Trump’s latest lawsuit, claiming he did not want to interfere in his party’s midterm elections.
Last week, former Vice President Mike Pence, who is also being proposed to run in the Republican Party midterm elections, said he hoped federal prosecutors would not press charges against Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, the day after Trump was indicted in the confidential documents case, Pence described the allegations as “a very serious matter” and took the opportunity to distance himself from the former president’s demeanor.
Some Republican leaders are showing an increasingly visible willingness to criticize Trump for the gravity of the allegations, including mishandling of state secrets he was charged with protecting as commander in chief.
But those on primary grounds are more cautious about references critical of Trump.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Trump’s main rival in the Republican primary, preferred to criticize the Justice Department’s conduct, saying it is in the service of the White House and the re-election aspirations of current president Joe Biden.
Faced with Trump’s popularity among Republican Party voters, his internal detractors are afraid to challenge him in an area in which the former president is very comfortable, underestimating the risks of a conviction.
However, party figures such as Mitch McConnell and Pompeo have drawn attention to the fact that these lawsuits could harm “swing voters,” voters who move more easily between the Republican and Democratic parties and could potentially become decisive for the outcome. . of next year’s presidential election.
On the other hand, the Republican “establishment” has spent most of the past decade trying to reject Trump’s figure and his divisive policies, but to no avail.
But this time around, the Republican Party faces the very real possibility that a man impeached twice in Congress and charged with dozens of crimes could become the party’s standard bearer by 2024.
“Based on the data we collect, more than two-thirds of people who say they support Trump are also open to arguments that he is a weak candidate and that he may have trouble recruiting new voters.”says Emily Seidel, leader of an influential Republican organization.
“And that could be fatal to our aspirations to get Biden out of the White House”Seidel concluded.
Source: DN
