Donald Trump indictment: Asa Hutchinson fundraises off Trump legal woes
Mabinty Quarshie
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As other Republican presidential candidates sought to slam the Department of Justice‘s latest indictment on Tuesday against former President Donald Trump, one 2024 rival had a different, more opportunistic tone.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson reacted to Trump’s third indictment over efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and actions regarding the Jan. 6 Capitol riot by fundraising for his presidential campaign.
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“I have always said that Donald Trump is morally responsible for the attack on our democracy,” Hutchinson said. “Now, with today’s indictment, our system of Justice will determine whether he is criminally responsible. Help me qualify for the debates.”
https://twitter.com/AsaHutchinson/status/1686502820885745664
Trump faces four new charges from the Justice Department: one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, one count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, one count of obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and one count of conspiracy against rights.
The 45-page indictment accuses Trump of attempting to remain in power after knowingly losing the 2020 presidential election. “For more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won,” the indictment states. “These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false.”
Hutchinson faces an uphill battle to winning the Republican nomination in 2024. He currently polls at 0.6%, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average. The former governor has not yet achieved the 40,000 unique donors that the Republican National Committee requires of any candidate who participates in the first primary debate on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee. Of those, the RNC requires at least 200 unique donors from 20-plus states and/or territories.
In early July, he told conservative host Hugh Hewitt that he wasn’t there yet on the required donors. “We’re about 5,000. So we got, again, more work to do. We’ve got time to do it,” he said at the time. And at the Turning Point Action Conference, a conservative gathering of young people, in mid-July, the crowd booed him as he spoke while others headed for the door.
https://twitter.com/GarrettHaake/status/1680630168040222722
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Hutchinson has previously slammed Trump’s previous legal problems, including special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump over allegations he mishandled classified documents after leaving the White House.
Last month, he told ABC’s This Week, “I’ve tried scores of federal criminal trials and taken them to a jury, and the cases don’t get any more serious than what’s been outlined by Jack Smith.”