![]() He blasted the Justice Department and made some pretty dubious claims along the way. MONTANARO: Well, he received extended applause, for example, and was greeted like a conquering hero during a speech that he made this weekend before the Georgia Republican Party. So when Trump tries to drive the narrative, at least as seen on right-wing media and before crowds that come to see him, how does he defend himself? The big question really is, though, if his rivals aren't willing to take on Trump directly on his mounting legal woes, how do they differentiate themselves? I mean, they're allowing Trump to continue to be the big fish in this GOP sea and drive the narrative with no repercussions politically. And that's what the candidates are needing to navigate. Some supporters are even using violent rhetoric to defend him. You have a lot of anger in the base, and that's really been drummed up by Trump. INSKEEP: Presumably, this plays on the feelings of Republican base voters. It's really just a fear tactic that hews closely to Trump's messaging. DeSantis arguing also that the DOJ's prosecutions aren't just about people at the top but regular people, too, even though there's really no evidence of that. MONTANARO: And there, he's essentially defending Trump. ![]() RON DESANTIS: Our Founding Fathers would have absolutely predicted the weaponization that we've seen with these agencies, particularly Justice and FBI, because when you don't have constitutional accountability, human nature is such that they will abuse their power. Instead, here was Trump's chief rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, during a speech in North Carolina. But they're really in the minority in their party and at this point have pretty limited support. Hutchinson says that Trump should drop out. Christie called the facts in the indictment devastating. Now, we've seen some criticism from Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. MONTANARO: Well, you'd think it'd be very different, actually, because for the most part, they're going after the Justice Department. INSKEEP: So what do you say when your presidential rival is indicted? INSKEEP: Other presidential candidates are appealing to those same Republican voters, so how do they talk of the indictment? NPR's Domenico Montanaro has been listening. But in appealing to Republican voters, Trump called the indictment baseless. ![]() It included photos of documents stacked in a bathroom and on a ballroom stage. The indictment detailed nuclear and defense secrets that Trump took to his home and didn't return when asked. He used presidential campaign events to reject a 37-count indictment related to his handling of classified documents. He spent the weekend in the court of public opinion. Former President Trump appears in federal court in Miami tomorrow.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |