GOP Debate: Republican candidates squabble over Trump indictments and Jan. 6 questions
Trump, who is facing 91 charges across four indictments, is the first president in U.S. history to face criminal charges.
On the eve of former President Trump’s anticipated surrender at Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail to face felony charges over the 2020 election, Republican candidates Wednesday night squabbled over their support for the GOP frontrunner.
During the first GOP presidential primary debate, when asked which candidates would still support Trump if he’s convicted of a felony, but voted into office, every Republican raised their hands with the exception of former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Christie slams Trump: “Someone has to stop normalizing this conduct. Whether or not you believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong, the conduct is beneath the office of the president of the United States,” Christie said, as boos rang in from the crowd. After a short pause he continued: “And this is the great thing about this country, booing is allowed. But it doesn’t change the truth.”
Ramaswamy backs Trump: Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who sparred with Christie multiple times throughout the debate, unabashedly backed the former president.
“President Trump, I believe, was the best president of the 21st century,” Ramaswamy said. “We’re skating on the ice and we cannot set a precedent where the party in power uses police force to indict its political opponents.”
Was Pence right?
When asked if candidates believed that former Vice President Mike Pence did the right thing in certifying the 2020 election in defiance of Trump, all of the candidates agreed, but some tried to toe the line.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott: “We should be asking ourselves a bigger question about the weaponization of our Department of Justice. We need lady justice to wear a blindfold.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: “This election is not about January 6 of 2021, it’s about January 20 of 2025, when the next president takes office. ... As Republicans, we’ve got to look forward.”
Why it matters: Trump, who faces a total of 91 charges across four indictments, is the first president in U.S. history to face criminal charges. Of those charges, there are 44 federal charges and 47 state charges — all of them felonies. Trump has denied wrongdoing in each case.
Despite this, Trump leads the Republican field by 40 percentage points, according to the latest Yahoo News/YouGov poll.
Trump, who chose to not attend Wednesday’s debate, instead sat down for a one-on-one pretaped interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. The former president has maintained that his growing lead against his party rivals is so wide that there is no need for him to attend the debate.
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