Former Vice President Mike Pence addresses supporters as he formally announces his intentions to run for the Republican presidential nomination on June 7, 2023 in Ankeny, Iowa.
Scott Olson | Getty Images
Several Republican candidates for the 2024 presidential election criticized Donald Trump on Sunday as he faces 37 federal indictments for hoarding documents after he left the White House. bottom.
Following the indictment, President Trump called former Attorney General Bill Barr a villain and lashed out at his critics, including former staff members. “Gutless Pig” Former Chief of Staff John Kerry is ‘bearish’ “It’s a very small ‘brain’.”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who announced his candidacy earlier this month, said Trump’s remarks suggested he was “the worst manager in US presidential history.”
“He’s a quick-tempered kid when someone disagrees with him,” Christie said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Presidential candidate Mike Pence said it was “too early” to say whether Trump would pardon if convicted. Pence said Wednesday that he can’t defend criminal charges against Trump, but added on Sunday that he didn’t know why so many Republicans were speculating that Trump would be guilty.
“All we know is what the president is being asked in the indictment,” Pence said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “I am sad that we are in this moment.”
Pence questioned Trump’s commitment to conservative principles, saying Trump was “distanced” from his position on abortion, and said his position on government bonds was “the same as President Joe Biden’s.” ‘ said.
He added that he hopes President Trump will “get back on his feet” in accepting the results of the 2020 election, which he has repeatedly claimed were stolen.
“Anyone who puts himself above the Constitution should never be president of the United States,” Pence said.
Former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson has questioned Trump’s ability to pardon himself if re-elected.
“I doubt that. I don’t think that’s what the Constitution intends to give the president the power to pardon,” Hutchinson said on ABC’s “This Week” before a self-pardon was “inappropriate.” But while it is “unsightly,” doing so is “exactly what[Trump]intends to do if he is elected president.”
Hutchinson also said he would not accept the Republican National Committee’s pledge to endorse the eventual Republican presidential candidate as a condition of participating in the debate.
“I’m not going to support a person under indictment who could be convicted at that point for president, just as other voters would not support it,” said the Arkansas Republican.
But Trump said on Sunday that Republican presidential nominee Vivek Ramaswamy, who is an endorser, should pardon the former president if convicted. The biopharmaceutical entrepreneur called for the dissolution of agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, citing so-called “political viewpoints.”
Ramaswamy accused the agency of blackmailing Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights era and “going after political conservatives” like President Trump, saying the agency was a “platform of corruption.” ” he told Fox News Sunday.
“This is about standing up for principle rather than politics,” he said.
