‘Another disastrous Trump indictment’: GOP 2024 hopefuls, lawmakers react to latest charges
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GOP candidates for 2024 and leading Republican lawmakers are reacting to former President Donald Trump’s latest indictment from a Georgia prosecutor over Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election in the state.
The Georgia grand jury charged Trump and 18 other people with a total of 41 counts. Those facing charges include Rudy Giuliani, Trump's attorney, Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff, and Sidney Powell, Trump's campaign lawyer. The indictment also lists 30 unnamed co-conspirators, as the Deseret News reported.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said arrest warrants had been issued, giving defendants until Aug. 25 to turn themselves in — a little over a day after the first Republican National Committee presidential primary debates in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, are set to take place.
Many 2024 hopefuls were quick to react to the news.
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy called it “another disastrous Trump indictment.” He criticized Fulton County for posting “the indictment online and taking it down before the charges were even filed,” as he wrote on X platform, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday night.
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Ramaswamy then offered Trump some legal advice: “Immediately file a motion to dismiss for a constitutional due process violation for publicly issuing an indictment before the grand jury had actually signed one.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters on a press call Tuesday that he hadn’t yet read the full indictment but said it exemplified the “criminalization of politics.”
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But former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson did not come to Trump’s defense.
“Over a year ago, I said that Donald Trump’s actions disqualified him from ever serving as President again. Those words are more true today than ever before,” Hutchinson said in a statement on X.
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers like Sen. Ted Cruz continued to defend Trump.
“This is disgraceful. Our country’s over 200 years old. We’ve never once indicted a former president, or a candidate or a leading candidate for president and this is Joe Biden and this is the Democrats weaponizing the justice system because they’re afraid of the voters,” said Cruz, who lost the Republican nomination for president to Trump in 2016, in an appearance on Fox News.
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“This should be decided at the ballot box and not in a bunch of liberal jurisdictions trying to put the man in jail. They’re weaponizing the law in this country. They’re trying to take Donald Trump down,” Cruz said.
As for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., he alleged that “Biden has weaponized government against his leading political opponent to interfere in the 2024 election.”
“Now a radical DA in Georgia is following Biden’s lead by attacking President Trump and using it to fundraise her political career,” he said, taking a jab at Willis.
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Meanwhile, the Trump campaign also ramped up attacks on Willis, claiming she is “a democrat activist” and noting her familial association with a former Black Panther activist in the latest email to supporters.
The email alleged that Willis indicted Trump to further her reelection campaign and leaked the charges against Trump before the grand jury voted, among a long list of accusations.
In another fundraising email, Trump gave his take on the indictment: “Even after 4 sham indictments and a threat of HUNDREDS OF YEARS IN PRISON, I will never abandon our mission, because the fate of our nation hangs in the balance in the 2024 election. It’s not just my freedom on the line, but yours as well – and I will NEVER let them take it from you.”
