2024 Republican candidates take sides as Trump indicted over 2020 election interference

Some Republican contenders for the 2024 presidential nomination took former President Donald Trump to process for his third indictment in 4 months — this time over his effort to overturn the 2020 election — whereas others blasted the Justice Division’s actions.

Former Vice President Mike Pence took a powerful stance after the four-count indictment accusing his former boss of constructing “knowingly false” claims of voter fraud in a determined bid to remain in energy.

“In the present day’s indictment serves as an necessary reminder: anybody who places himself over the Structure ought to by no means be President of the USA,” Pence tweeted.

“Our nation is extra necessary than one man. Our Structure is extra necessary than anybody man’s profession,” he added in another post.

“On January sixth, Former President Trump demanded that I select between him and the Structure. I chose the Constitution and I at all times will.”

Chris Christie, Trump’s one-time ally who has grow to be one of his biggest hecklers within the crowded GOP area, known as the newest expenses “a stain on our nation’s historical past.”

“The occasions across the White Home from election evening ahead are a stain on our nation’s historical past & a shame to the individuals who participated,” the former New Jersey governor tweeted.

“This shame falls essentially the most on Donald Trump. He swore an oath to the Structure, violated his oath & introduced disgrace to his presidency.

GOP longshot, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, took an identical tone in criticizing Trump over the contemporary federal expenses.

“I’ve at all times stated that Donald Trump is morally liable for the assault on our democracy,” he tweeted. “Now, with at this time’s indictment, our system of Justice will decide whether or not he’s criminally accountable.”

Different candidates, nonetheless, had been fast to take pictures on the Division of Justice and different federal legislation enforcement companies.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s second to Trump in polling amongst GOP candidates, vowed in a tweet to “finish the weaponization of presidency, substitute the FBI Director, and guarantee a single customary of justice for all Individuals.”

He stated he’s solely seen experiences in regards to the case in opposition to Trump and has not learn the indictment. Nonetheless, he stated it was necessary to enact reforms that would come with Individuals being able to maneuver circumstances from Washington, DC, to their residence districts.

“Washington, DC is a ‘swamp’ and it’s unfair to have to face trial earlier than a jury that’s reflective of the swamp mentality,” he wrote. “One of many causes our nation is in decline is the politicization of the rule of legislation. No extra excuses — I’ll finish the weaponization of the federal authorities.”

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott expressed his concern about Biden’s Justice Division and “its immense energy used in opposition to political opponents.”

“What we see at this time are two completely different tracks of justice. One for political opponents and one other for the son of the present president,” Scott tweeted in reference to Hunter Biden. “We’re watching Biden’s DOJ proceed to hunt Republicans, whereas defending Democrats.”

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy additionally took a powerful stance in opposition to the feds whereas defending Trump, who he vowed to pardon over this indictment if elected.

He then blamed censorship for the ugly scene that unraveled on Jan. 6.

“Donald Trump isn’t the reason for what occurred on Jan 6,” he wrote in a lengthy tweet. “The true trigger was systematic & pervasive censorship of residents within the yr main as much as it. For those who inform folks they will’t converse, that’s once they scream. For those who inform folks they will’t scream, that’s once they tear issues down. If we fail to confess the reality, Jan 6 will simply be a preview of far worse to return & I don’t need to see us get there.”

On the time of publication, candidate Nikki Haley, the previous South Carolina governor who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, has but to take a aspect.

Trump has blasted the fees as politically motivated. He might resist 55 years in jail if convicted on all expenses.

He might nonetheless run for the White Home in 2024 even when discovered responsible and is at the moment the frontrunner to face President Biden within the normal election after shedding to the Democrat in 2020.

Trump has additionally been indicted on federal expenses tied to his storage of labeled paperwork at Mar-a-Lago and in Manhattan over hush cash funds through the 2016 marketing campaign.