Republican presidential candidates are split over the indictment of former President Donald Trump for having improperly kept classified documents, with some criticizing their party’s 2024 frontrunner for his “reckless” behavior and others committing to future pardons.
Former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence upped their criticism Tuesday as Trump was arraigned in Miami federal court, with Pence telling The Wall Street Journal that the 37-count indictment against the former president was “very serious.”
“Having read the indictment, these are very serious allegations. And I can’t defend what is alleged,” Pence, 64, told the outlet, noting claims that the classified documents revealed US defense and nuclear information. “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.”
Haley, 51, echoed her past comments on the charges during a Tuesday radio interview, saying Trump had been “incredibly reckless with our national security” but left open the possibility of a presidential pardon.
“When you look at a pardon, the issue is less about guilt and more about what’s good for the country,” she told hosts Buck Sexton and Clay Travis. “And I think it would be terrible for the country to have a former president in prison for years because of a documents case … So I would be inclined in favor of a pardon.”
Longshot 2024 contender Vivek Ramaswamy on Tuesday called on all other candidates, including Democrats, to commit to a pardon of Trump if they are elected.
“We need to declare independence from our donor class in the Republican Party,” Ramaswamy said outside the courthouse. “If you’re not going to pardon Donald Trump in January 2025, you deserve to say why, and we will hold you accountable.”
Many have claimed the prosecution standard applied to the 77-year-old ex-president fell short of the one for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Biden, as similar investigations showed the Democrats retained classified information — or in Clinton’s case, used a private email server for official business.
Though almost all of Trump’s competitors are polling in the low single digits, they were more likely to insist the FBI and Justice Department need a shake-up than to castigate the 45th president.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who jumped into the race last month, has not committed to a pardon, calling it a “serious case with serious allegations” during a Monday campaign event. But he maintained Americans have the right to be skeptical of the charges brought by Biden’s Justice Department.
“As Americans, we have to have a justice system where the lady of justice wears a blindfold,” the Republian candidate told The Post and Courier newspaper. “What we see today across this administration of President Joe Biden is a double standard … That double standard is both un-American and unacceptable. You can’t protect Democrats while targeting and hunting Republicans.”
“I think millions of Americans are deeply troubled by this indictment, particularly given the fact that Hillary Clinton engaged in very similar behavior in the 2016 campaign and did not face indictment. And we’ve got to have equal treatment under the law in this country,” Pence also told The Journal. “My bottom line is this: I think the American people have lost confidence in the Department of Justice, not just because of this, but because of, really, a long series of abuses that have come to light.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is closest to Trump in the polls, committed to reforming the federal law enforcement agencies if he was elected next year, promising to move the FBI headquarters out of Washington, DC, and ramp down the Department of Justice to “pre-9/11” priorities, RealClearPolitics reported. The second-place GOP candidate also hit former FBI Director James Comey for applying a different standard to Clinton when declining to prosecute her over the email scandal in 2016.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took to Twitter before Trump’s arraignment on Tuesday, reposting a clip from his CNN town hall last week in which he blamed the former president for his legal woes.
“When did we get to the point where we’re always blaming our adversaries for the weakness of our candidates?” he asked at the time. “’Oh, it’s the Democrats’ fault, it’s DOJ’s fault, it’s this person’s fault, it’s the media’s fault.’ How about it’s his? He hasn’t won a damn thing since 2016. Three-time loser.”
Trump is currently leading the Republican primary field with 52.4% support, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average. He faces decades in federal prison and a $9 million fine if convicted on all charges.