In the face of a devastating jury verdict convicting 2024 GOP front-runner Donald Trump as a sex offender, fellow Republican presidential hopefuls weren’t just hesitant to attack Trump, they largely sided with him.
Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur and longtime presidential candidate, echoed Trump’s excuse that the case in federal court in New York was nothing more than a political show trial.
“This seems to be just another part of the establishment’s anaphylactic response against its main political allergen: Donald Trump,” he said.
Another longtime presidential candidate, right-wing political radio host Larry Elder, delivered a concise remark dismissing the verdict against Trump by comparing it to sexual assault allegations against President Joe Biden.
“Was Tara Reade available for comment?” Elder tweetedreferring to a former staffer in Biden’s office when he was in the Senate.
Reade came out in 2020 with allegations that Biden sexually assaulted her at a Capitol Hill office building in 1993. But the AP declined to publish an article about it after allegedly finding inconsistencies in her story.
While most of the potential nominees were quiet — Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Tim Scott, Chris Christie and Chris Sununu, not all immediately released statements, among the rest of the field — a Republican longshot issued some slight criticism.
Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, who was formerly an American attorney there, said that in his more than 25 years of experience in the courtroom, “I’ve seen with my own eyes how a cavalier and arrogant disregard for the rule of law can backfire,” Hutchinson said, adding that the jury had made a decision on Trump’s “indefensible behavior.”
Tuesday was a historic moment, as Trump became the first former US president to be held accountable in court for sexual abuse. Jurors ended a two-week trial by deliberating for just three hours before concluding that in 1996, Trump sexually assaulted journalist E. Jean Carroll in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store.
But most Republicans were far from willing to criticize their past, current, and future flag bearer.
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) took to Fox News to blame the whole affair on another shot at his party’s top candidate.
“It’s been going on for years. And he’s been incredible in his ability to stand up to these kinds of attacks and the American public has been incredible in their support for him,” said Hagerty, who also acquitted Trump upon his impeachment. to the Senate in 2021 for launching an attack on the very Congress where he serves.
While most Republicans hadn’t spoken about the verdict at all, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel shrugged off the verdict and told Fox News viewers that suburban moms like her are more concerned about the how Biden manages the US economy. .
“I think a lot of women are incredibly disappointed with the Biden administration, so they’re going to look at whoever the Republican nominee is,” McDaniel said.
Meanwhile, Carroll released a statement Tuesday night saying she had filed a lawsuit against Trump to “clear my name and get my life back.”
“Today the world finally knows the truth. This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed,” she said. express my deep and lasting gratitude to everyone who has supported me from the beginning, especially my incredible and fearless legal team, led by Robbie Kaplan, who never backed down in their quest for truth and justice.”