The possibility that former President Donald Trump may be federally indicted again, this time for his role in the Jan. 6 riot, has served as a prime opportunity for some GOP presidential candidates to criticize the former president.
Still, others are waiting to see whether actual criminal charges are brought before passing judgment. Trump said on Tuesday that he received a target letter on Sunday, a notice that says he is the target of another federal investigation — this one again led by special counsel Jack Smith.
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The former president has already pleaded not guilty to federal criminal charges stemming from Smith’s first investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents.
Several GOP candidates expressed solidarity with the former president the first time around, decrying the actions of the Department of Justice as politicized and weaponized. This time, however, some candidates have not launched a stream of support for Trump against the potential indictment.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tweeted on Tuesday that he planned to withhold comment on the indictment until it was official.
“As a former prosecutor, I want to see any potential indictment before I talk about the case against Donald Trump,” Christie said.
“That said, let me be clear: his conduct on January 6th proves he doesn’t care about our country & our Constitution,” the former governor continued.
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Other candidates have stepped up their criticism of the former president while also highlighting their distrust of the federal judicial system.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who staunchly opposed the DOJ’s first indictment of Trump, said at a press conference in South Carolina on Tuesday that he thinks Trump should have handled the Jan. 6 riot differently.
Still, DeSantis said, there has broadly been “an attempt to criminalize politics” recently.
“There’s a difference between being brought up on criminal charges and doing things,” DeSantis said when asked if Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 were wrong. “Like, for example, I think it was shown how he was in the White House and didn’t do anything while things were going on. He should have come out more forcefully.”
“But to try to criminalize that, that’s a different issue entirely. And I think that we want to be in a situation where you don’t have one side just constantly trying to put the other side in jail,” DeSantis continued. “And that’s, unfortunately, what we’re seeing now.”
Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who has been an outspoken supporter of Trump and fierce critic of the DOJ for its role in the indictments, has offered seemingly conflicting responses to Jan. 6 in the two years since the riot.
Earlier on Tuesday, Ramaswamy first issued a statement saying it was a “mistake” to say Trump was responsible for Jan. 6.
“I would have made very different judgments than President Trump did, but a bad judgment is not a crime,” Ramaswamy said. “It’s a mistake to say he was responsible for Jan. 6. The real cause was systematic and pervasive censorship in the lead-up to those events.”
The entrepreneur released another statement later in the day, calling the potential Jan. 6 indictment “the most dangerous to all our Constitutional Republic.”
“It is un-American for the ruling party to use police power to arrest its chief political rivals,” Ramaswamy said.
These statements deviate from statements that Ramaswamy made in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot.
“What Trump did last week was wrong. Downright abhorrent. Plain and simple. I’ve said it before and did so in my piece,” Ramaswamy tweeted on Jan. 12, 2021.
What Trump did last week was wrong. Downright abhorrent. Plain and simple. I’ve said it before and did so in my piece.
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) January 12, 2021
Ramaswamy clarified in an ABC News interview that his tweets were about how he handled Jan. 6, not necessarily blaming him for its inception.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said in a Tuesday interview on Fox News that the possibility of a Jan. 6 indictment is just “drama” meant to serve as a “distraction” to the 2024 Republican primary race.
“It’s gonna keep on going,” Haley, who served as Trump’s former U.N. ambassador, said. “I mean, the rest of this primary election is gonna be in reference to Trump. It’s gonna be about lawsuits, it’s gonna be about legal fees, it’s gonna be about judges, and it’s just gonna continue to be a further and further distraction.”
“That’s why I am running,” she continued. “It’s because we need a new generational leader. We can’t keep dealing with this drama. We can’t keep dealing with the negativity. We can’t keep dealing with all of this.”
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is a vocal Trump critic, released a statement on Tuesday stating that he has “said from the beginning that Donald Trump’s actions on January 6 should disqualify him from ever being President again.”
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“Anyone who truly loves this country and is willing to put this country over themselves would suspend their campaign for President of the United States immediately,” Hutchinson said. “It is disappointing that Donald Trump refuses to do so.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment on the candidates’ reactions.
