When news broke on Thursday that Donald Trump would be indicted for his alleged mishandling of classified documents, most of his Republican presidential primary opponents rushed to his defense, blaming the charges on the “weaponization of federal law enforcement”, as the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, said.
But several Republican candidates have shifted their tone since the indictment was unsealed on Friday, revealing the full extent of the serious charges Trump faces. Those Republicans’ willingness to challenge the former president’s claims of “political persecution” could mark a new chapter in the 2024 primary fight, although the candidates may have to change their tune if Trump becomes the nominee.
According to the indictment filed by the office of special counsel Jack Smith, Trump willfully withheld 31 classified documents from federal officials and obstructed justice in his efforts to conceal the materials. Some of those documents included highly sensitive government information on America’s nuclear programs, military vulnerabilities and planned responses in the event of a foreign attack. The former president pleaded not guilty to all 37 federal counts at his arraignment in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday.
The nature of the classified information kept in ballrooms and bathrooms at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida caught the attention of his vice-president and now primary opponent, Mike Pence. While Pence had previously attacked the department of justice over the indictment, he told the Wall Street Journal editorial board on Tuesday that he considered his former boss’s alleged actions to be indefensible.
“Having read the indictment,” Pence said, “these are very serious allegations. And I can’t defend what is alleged. But the president is entitled to his day in court, he’s entitled to bring a defense, and I want to reserve judgment until he has the opportunity to respond.”
Pence, whose son and son-in-law served in the US military, specifically chastised Trump over endangering service members.
“Even the inadvertent release of that kind of information could compromise our national security and the safety of our armed forces,” Pence said. “And, frankly, having two members of our immediate family serving in the armed forces of the United States, I will never diminish the importance of protecting our nation’s secrets.”
That line was echoed by former South Carolina governor and presidential candidate Nikki Haley. Although Haley initially responded to news of the indictment by condemning “prosecutorial overreach, double standards and vendetta politics”, she begrudgingly acknowledged on Monday that Trump’s alleged behavior represented a grave threat to Americans’ safety.
“If this indictment is true, if what it says is actually the case, President Trump was incredibly reckless with our national security,” Haley told Fox News. “I’m a military spouse. My husband’s about to deploy this weekend. This puts all of our military men and women in danger.”
The South Carolina senator Tim Scott softened his own impassioned defense of Trump after the indictment was made public. While Scott lamented “a justice system where the scales are weighted” on Thursday, he told reporters on Monday that Smith’s indictment represented a “serious case with serious allegations”.
But those three candidates did not go as far as the former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who has been far more outspoken in his criticism of Trump. At a CNN town hall on Monday, Christie credited Smith’s team with crafting “a very tight, very detailed, evidence-laden indictment”.
“Whether you like Donald Trump or you don’t like Donald Trump, this conduct is inexcusable, in my opinion, for somebody who wants to be president of the United States,” Christie said.
Christie, who was once a Trump loyalist before turning against the former president, attributed the retention of the classified documents to “vanity run amok”.
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“He’s saying I’m more important than the country,” Christie said. “And he is now going to put this country through this when we didn’t have to go through it.”
Even after the release of the incriminating indictment, however, some Republican candidates have continued to circle the wagons in Trump’s defense. Presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy traveled to Miami for the arraignment on Tuesday, and he spoke to supporters about the need to pardon Trump if he is convicted.
“This is my commitment: on January 20, 2025, if I’m elected the next US president, to pardon Donald J Trump for these offenses in this federal case,” Ramaswamy, a long-shot candidate, said. “I have challenged, I have demanded that every other candidate in this race either sign this commitment to pardon on January 20, 2025, or else to explain why they are not.”
Although Haley has criticized Trump’s recklessness, she said she would be inclined to pardon him if she becomes president.
“When you look at a pardon, the issue is less about guilt and more about what’s good for the country,” Haley said on Tuesday. “I think it would be terrible for the country to have a former president in prison for years because of a documents case.”
But with Trump continuing to dominate in polls of likely primary voters, it appears unlikely that Haley or any other Republican candidate will be in the position to issue a pardon. Given that the Republican National Committee has demanded presidential candidates pledge their support for the eventual nominee, whispers of criticism among Trump’s opponents may soon dim to silence, as they did in 2016.
As Republicans have clashed over Trump’s fate, Joe Biden has remained above the fray, seemingly content to watch his rivals tie themselves in knots over a former president accused of jeopardizing national security. When asked about the arraignment on Tuesday, the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, responded in the same way she has for days: no comment.
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