Fourth Time Around, Republicans Rally Behind Trump as Most Critics Are Silent

In the wake of the fourth indictment of President Trump, this time in Georgia, Republicans are rallying around the former president, making familiar claims that the investigation is a “witch hunt,” while a few of Mr. Trump’s opponents attempt to call attention to what his “baggage” portends for the 2024 election.Speaker McCarthy and other leadership figures in the House immediately came to Mr. Trump’s defense following the late-night indictment Monday, calling District Attorney Fani Willis’s investigation a “sham.”“Justice should be blind, but Biden has weaponized government against his leading political opponent to interfere in the 2024 election,” Mr. McCarthy said. “Now a radical DA in Georgia is following Biden’s lead by attacking President Trump and using it to fundraise her political career.”The head of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, who is likely to investigate the investigation against Mr. Trump once Congress comes back into session, called the probe a “WITCH HUNT.”“Today’s indictment is just the latest political attack in the Democrats’ WITCH HUNT against President Trump,” Mr. Jordan said. “He did nothing wrong.”Mr. Trump himself also characterized the investigation as a “Witch Hunt,” saying that the grand jury vote was “Rigged” and that Ms. Willis is biased against him.“Why didn’t they Indict 2.5 years ago? Because they wanted to do it right in the middle of my political campaign,” Mr. Trump said in an early morning post on Truth Social. “Witch Hunt.”Since then, Mr. Trump has also promised to present a “CONCLUSIVE Report” proving that “all charges should be dropped against me and others.” He said it would be unveiled at a press conference at Bedminster, New Jersey, next week.“There will be a complete EXONERATION,” Mr. Trump said. “They never went after those that Rigged the Election. They only went after those that fought to find the RIGGERS.”A few GOP voices tried to warn about Mr. Trump’s growing vulnerabilities as a candidate and acknowledge the mounting evidence against the former president, as he appears well on his way to securing the GOP presidential nomination next year.One of the most vocal anti-Trump presidential candidates, Congressman Will Hurd, tells the Sun, “It’s time we move beyond dealing with the former president’s baggage.”“This is further evidence that Trump knew he lost the 2020 election and was ready to do anything it took to cling to power,” Mr. Hurd says. “He will use this latest indictment as another opportunity to manipulate Americans into paying his legal bills.”Mr. Hurd called on Republicans to rally behind “a leader who isn’t afraid of bullies like Trump and who understands the complex issues facing our country.”Some of Mr. Trump’s most vocal critics, namely Minority Leader McConnell, Governor Christie, and Vice President Pence, haven’t yet weighed in on the latest indictment.On the Democratic side, President Biden has not addressed the indictment, though Majority Leader Schumer and the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, issued a joint statement saying that the new indictment “portrays a repeated pattern of criminal activity by the former president.”“This latest indictment details how Mr. Trump led a months-long plot pushing the Big Lie to steal an election, undermine our democracy, and overturn the will of the people of Georgia,” Messrs. Schumer and Jeffries said in the statement.Although there have not been any surveys capturing the effect of the latest indictment on the opinions of the Republican electorate, past indictments have only strengthened Mr. Trump’s standing in the party’s 2024 presidential primary.One Republican strategist, Shermichael Singleton, said he is hearing from Republicans in Iowa that they expect the latest indictment to improve Mr. Trump’s standing in the Republican race there even further.“This is increasingly becoming an ‘us versus them’ scenario — and the odds of anyone beating Trump for the GOP nomination may have gotten even harder,” Mr. Singleton said.

Fourth Time Around, Republicans Rally Behind Trump as Most Critics Are Silent

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