When news broke Tuesday morning that former President Donald J. Trump was likely to face charges in a third criminal case, the reaction from his rivals in the 2024 Republican primary was remarkably muted.
Mr. Trump still had defenders — including his main competitor in polls, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who branded him a victim of the Justice Department’s “politicization.” But the tenor was subtly different. Some candidates seemed visibly tired of constantly having to comment on Mr Trump’s legal troubles at the expense of talking about something else, and some said nothing at all.
Nikki Haley, who served as United Nations ambassador under Mr Trump and is now standing against him, sounded annoyed when asked on Fox News about the investigation into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his role in the attack. January 6, 2021. at the Capitol. She called it a “distraction” from important issues such as foreign policy, border security and the national debt.
“The rest of these primaries will be about Trump: it will be about lawsuits; it concerns legal costs; it is about judges; and it will only remain a further and further distraction,’ said Mrs. Haley. “And that’s why I’m running, because we need a new generation leader. We cannot continue this drama.”
Notably, she did not repeat what she said when Mr Trump was indicted last month for holding classified documents: that the allegations were evidence of “prosecution overstepping, double standards and vendetta politics”.
For his part, Mr DeSantis said any charges would be part of “an effort to criminalize politics and try to criminalize differences”, while also saying Mr Trump “should have come forward more forcefully” to to dissuade his supporters from storming the Capitol on January 6.
And while Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, speaking at a campaign event in New Hampshire, denounced what he described as “the weaponization of the Justice Department against political enemies,” he quickly turned to citing non-Trump-related examples. He further pressed Mr. Trump, saying, “The voters will decide the next president of the United States.”
Silence reigned in other corners. The campaigns of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum did not respond to requests for comment. And a spokesman for former Vice President Mike Pence — who made an enemy of his former boss by confirming the election results on Jan. 6 — said Mr. Pence had nothing to say Tuesday morning.
But, in a nod to the political inescapability of Mr. Trump’s legal troubles, the spokesman, Devin O’Malley, added that Mr. Pence would appear on television later in the day and would likely be asked about it.
The restraint was not universal.
A candidate who has been one of Trump’s most staunch defenders, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, went so far last month as to urge every 2024 contender to pledge to pardon him if elected. On Tuesday, he initially took a less fiery course, saying he “would have made very different judgments than President Trump, but bad judgment is not a crime.” But not long after, he issued a conspiratorial statement, suggesting without evidence that the possible charges were part of a plot to disqualify Mr. Trump from office under the 14th Amendment.
“It is un-American for the ruling party to use police power to arrest its main political rivals,” said Ramaswamy. He added that he had filed a Freedom of Information Act request to seek evidence for his belief that President Biden directed the Justice Department and special counsel to charge Mr. Trump. He ended the statement by promoting an upcoming campaign event.
Three other low-polling candidates who, unlike Mr. Ramaswamy, have sought out the primary field’s anti-Trump job, reacted predictably.
Former Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey said on Twitter that he would not comment on the potential lawsuit until an indictment was released, but that Mr. Trump’s actions on January 6 proved “he doesn’t care about our country and our constitution.” And former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson reiterated his call for Mr Trump to suspend his campaign.
“I have said from the outset that Donald Trump’s actions on January 6 should disqualify him from ever being president again,” Mr Hutchinson said. said in a statement. He added: “Anyone who truly loves this country and is willing to put it above themselves would immediately suspend their campaign for the presidency of the United States.”
The third candidate, former Representative Will Hurd of Texas, was scathing: “Losing to Joe Biden was so humiliating to Donald Trump that he was willing to let people die for his lies about stolen elections,” he said in a statement. He added: “Trump’s inaction then, and now a target in the investigation, proves he is unfit for office.”