As soon as the indictment of Donald Trump was revealed Thursday, prominent Republicans lashed out against Alvin Bragg, accusing the Manhattan district attorney of bringing a groundless and politically motivated case against the former president.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the leading alternative to Trump in polls so far for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, managed to invoke liberal financier George Soros twice in his 75-word statement claiming that Bragg was weaponizing government to carry out a political agenda. DeSantis also promised to resist Trump’s extradition to New York from Florida, never mind that Trump’s lawyers said the former president would surrender to be arraigned. Other GOP presidential hopefuls expressed similar sentiments. Former Vice President Mike Pence called the indictment “an outrage,” while South Carolina Senator Tim Scott labeled it a “travesty” and accused Bragg of using the law to go after a political enemy.
But one GOP contender, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, took a different tack. Trump, he said, should abandon his pursuit of the Republican nomination in light of the indictment, calling it an unnecessary distraction. Hutchinson is hardly a NeverTrumper; he supported Trump’s presidential bids in both 2016 and 2020. But he became critical of the former president following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and has said in recent weeks that an indictment should disqualify Trump from the presidential race.
