One GOP candidate gains but also stands up for Trump

FPI / August 3, 2023

Reactions from the 2024 GOP presidential candidates to the latest Department of Justice attack on Joe Biden's top political rival call to mind Donald Trump lumping "RINOs" in with Democrats, communists and fascists.

Former Vice President Mike Pence's "contemporaneous notes" were presented as evidence in the Special Prosecutor Jack Smith's latest indictment, announced on Aug. 1. Candidates including Pence, Chris Christie, and Asa Hutchinson quickly went public with their view that Trump is getting what is coming to him.

Such "hopefuls" are languishing in the single digits in the polls.

The America First candidate who has backed Trump at every turn is the one gaining the most traction. That would be Vivek Ramaswamy.

Ramaswamy announced Tuesday that he had filed a lawsuit against the DOJ after it failed to respond to his Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about the classified documents case against Trump and he also filed a new FOIA request regarding the just-issued Jan. 6 Trump indictment.

Ramaswamy tweeted on Tuesday night that he had “just filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice following its failure to substantively respond to my Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.”

The request, he said, sought “to uncover what White House officials, including President Joe Biden, communicated to Merrick Garland & Jack Smith about the unprecedented indictment in the classified documents case of a former U.S. President and one of Biden‘s political opponents in the 2024 Presidential election.”

“I’m also filing a separate FOIA request with the DOJ to uncover any similar communications relating to the just-issued Jan 6 Trump indictment. We should demand accountability and transparency,” he said.

On the new indictment, Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur surging in the polls among GOP primary voters, denounced the DOJ's grounds for charging Trump, citing the U.S. Supreme Court case U.S. v. Alvarez, which held that political candidates even have a First Amendment right to knowingly make inaccurate statements.

“If you’re going to indict a former president and leading presidential candidate, it better not be based on unprecedented legal theory,” Ramaswamy said. “Further, it’s more than a stretch to call something criminal if someone is seeking legal counsel from their own lawyers.”

Special prosecutor Jack Smith has “created a dangerous precedent,” Ramaswamy said, accusing him of “criminalizing the behavior of Trump‘s lawyers who offered him legal advice, labeling them co-conspirators instead.”

Trump‘s campaign denied he had committed any wrongdoing and accused Joe Biden of weaponizing the DOJ to subvert Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.

As for the 2024 GOP candidates bringing up the rear, Christie said of the latest Trump indictment: “The events around the White House from election night forward are a stain on our country’s history & a disgrace to the people who participated. This disgrace falls the most on Donald Trump. He swore an oath to the Constitution, violated his oath & brought shame to his presidency.”

What about Trump's "loyal" vice president?

"Today's indictment serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States," Pence said.

A new New York Times/Siena College national poll of Republican presidential primary voters shows Christie barely registers, getting just 2% support – far behind Trump’s 54%.

The poll even found that Christie's main well of support in the GOP primary is Joe Biden voters.

Among poll respondents who said that they voted for Biden in the 2020 presidential election, Christie earned a whopping 22% support, the highest percentage of anyone in the GOP field. But in a Republican primary, Biden voters don’t make up a particularly large share of the vote. Just 8% of the Siena poll’s respondents said they voted for Biden, versus 81% who were 2020 Trump voters. Among those voters, Christie got less than 1% support.

Free Press International
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