After the second indictment, the start of the crumbling. Although there are still many voices in the Republican ranks in support of former President Donald Trump and condemning the Justice Department’s decision to prosecute the populist for his mishandling of highly classified documents after his departure from the White House, signs of division are also beginning to appear within the ex-president’s party.
And this weakening of unity around Donald Trump, who is currently leading the party’s nomination race for the 2024 presidential election, could well complicate the reconquest of the hearts of American voters, in more than one way. year, to regain control of the White House and the Senate.
“If we choose someone who is not called Donald Trump [lors des primaires républicaines]we will be able to beat Joe Biden, commented on Tuesday the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Paul Ryan on the airwaves of CBS, considering that the indictment this week of the ex-president before federal justice now made him “ineligible”.
“Yes, he still has a lot of support. In a primary, it is important. But the argument of his eligibility will become more important, ”he added, and this, after his appearance on Tuesday before a judge in Miami. The former reality TV star has pleaded not guilty to the 37 charges now pending against him.
Justice accuses him of having accumulated and refusing to make secret documents. “He’s going to cost us the Senate again, he’s going to cost us seats in the House of Representatives, when we want to win. And it is now easier to explain to his supporters that he is no longer presidential,” said Paul Ryan.
An “unprecedented instrumentalization”
Faced with this indictment of an ex-president, exposed to criminal charges for the first time in the country’s 247-year political history, the republican defense regime from which the populist benefits despite his numerous escapades is now variable in geometry.
“The American people are intelligent and understand that this is the quintessence of the unprecedented instrumentalization of the federal apparatus against Joe Biden’s main adversary”, summarized the president of the Republican group a few days ago at the House of Representatives, Elise Stefanik. The party holds a slim majority held hostage by a handful of elected ultra-conservative supporters of Trumpism at all costs.
Same story from Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, who said that this indictment disturbs “the nation” by attacking “the principle of fairness in the face of justice”.
Tuesday morning, in front of the Miami courthouse where Donald Trump appeared, the candidate for the Republican nomination, and opponent of the billionaire in this race, Vivek Ramaswamy, even went further, promising, if he were elected president , to offer a pardon to Trump, if the latter were to be condemned. And he asked the ten candidates currently in the race to also commit to this path.
This should not be the case for the ex-governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, who is also seeking to win the Republican ticket for the 2024 presidential election and who, this week, has mainly made himself the voice of criticism from the American right against the ex-president and his crimes.
“This is a very specific, very detailed indictment, based on solid evidence and describing appalling conduct,” he said Monday on CNN, while indicating that the trial also risked to bring out even more information.
A point of view which now extends to the very heart of the Senate where the members of the Republican minority have decided, at best to remain silent on this new indictment and at worst to admit the seriousness and integrity of the investigation carried out by the Department of Justice against Trump.
“The charges in this case are serious enough and cannot be casually dismissed,” Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska summed up in a written statement. “The mishandling of classified documents is a federal crime because it can reveal national secrets, as well as the sources and methods by which they were obtained. Donald Trump is accused, among other things, of violating the Espionage Act in the United States.
“I’m getting angrier and angrier the more I think about it,” Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said. The country is going to go through another agonizing and turbulent time and it could have been avoided if President Trump had simply handed over the documents when asked to do so.”
A “serious crime”
The ambivalence in the Republican camp, in the face of the defense or the support to be offered from now on to the ex-president, despite the weight of the accusations brought against him, is undoubtedly explained by the support which the candidate of the radical right enjoys. always within the Republican electorate. According to a probe launched by Reuters in the last few days, 81% of members of his party believe that the accusations against him are politically guided. 61% continue to consider him the best candidate for the next presidential election, against 23% who prefer him the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, according to a CBS poll released on Sunday.
However, if he remains the favorite of the Republicans, things could get tougher for the politician, regularly praising authoritarian and undemocratic leaders, in his attempt to obtain a second term in the White House. A general election is indeed likely to be less favorable to him.
It is that 57% of Americans, all political colors combined, have an unfavorable opinion of him, according to the firm Civiqs. More tellingly, 63% call it a “serious crime” to “take secret documents from the White House” and conspire to prevent their return to the national archives, as required by law.
And as if that weren’t enough: Nearly two-thirds believe that Trump should not be allowed to occupy the Oval Office, if convicted of this crime, YouGov reports.