Kendall Stanley: Joining the field

Yee-haw! Come one come all to the greatest show in town!

That would be the current (as I’m writing this) 10 politicians running for the GOP nomination for president. Count ’em, 10, which includes former President Donald Trump.

They range from the well-known and tested — former vice president Mike Pence, to the obscure — here’s looking at you, Larry Elder.

National Public Radio defined the field nicely:

“As of now, the former president is running in a field that features no fewer than nine high-profile challengers. They include Mike Pence, a former vice president; four current or former governors: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson; Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations and also a former South Carolina governor; U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina; biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy; and conservative talk show host Larry Elder, an unsuccessful candidate for California governor.

“While big, the 2024 field could have been much bigger. The party’s 2016 class featured 17 candidates that filled two debate stages.

“Several Republicans who had taken steps to prepare for a run in 2024 ultimately bowed out. They include former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton.”

Of the group of nine, Pence and Christie have been critical of the former president, especially Christie who has been attacking Trump head on. Others have avoided annoying Trump in the hopes of what, Trump deciding he will pull out of the race and they will get his votes?

DeSantis has been making it out of single digit territory in polls looking at the 2024 race, but for the rest of the pack it’s single digit recognition and support.

But will things change

All of that was interesting as of June 8, but then down came the indictment in federal court against the former president in the classified documents case.

On cue Mr. Trump’s allies came to his aid, suggesting he was the target of a witch hunt.

Mr. Trump confirmed on his social media platform that he had been indicted. The charges against him include willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements and a conspiracy to obstruct justice, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to The New York Times.

“I am an innocent man,” Trump proclaimed, but it’s one thing to say it and another to prove it in a court of law.

When you go from I didn’t take them, to I took them but I had a right to, to that’s all the documents I have, to finding hundreds of documents that I did have after a subpoena was served doesn’t sound like an innocent man, does it?

Certainly Trump is presumed innocent until proven guilty and many of his allies will continue to push the idea he didn’t do anything wrong and is being hounded by an aggressive Department of Justice. They will almost certainly try to muddy the waters by bringing up Hillary Clinton’s emails and the fact that both President Joe Biden and former vice president Mike Pence also were found to have classified documents in their possession (which they immediately returned to the National Archives).

As political historian Timothy Naftali noted, however, “Trump not only had a hard time with limits, he didn’t respect them. And this is a case where he was told repeatedly that there were limits on his ability to keep materials and he said, ‘I don’t care.’”

And he pretty much has continued to say I don’t care.

It is way too early to speculate on how and if the indictment affects the upcoming election and how the case will change how the nine so far other candidates handle Trump. If you come out in support of the former guy then why would voters choose you when they can put Trump back in office since he has been so persecuted.

If you don’t support Trump then what are your chances of winning any of the primary elections?

As always there’s Trump, front and center, airing yet once again his grievances.

— Kendall P. Stanley is retired editor of the News-Review. He can be contacted at kendallstanley@charter.net. The opinions expressed in this column are those of the writer and not necessarily of the Petoskey News-Review or its employees.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Kendall Stanley: Joining the field