Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that former President Donald Trump should have done more to stop the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but questioned whether his actions amounted to criminal behavior.
Trump announced Tuesday that he received a target letter from Special Counsel Jack Smith as part of an investigation into the events surrounding the Jan. 6 insurrection and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump’s social media post said he expects to be indicted and arrested soon.
Appearing in South Carolina to roll out a policy proposal on the military, DeSantis responded to multiple questions about Trump’s actions surrounding Jan. 6.
Asked if he believes Trump “bears any responsibility for what happened on Jan. 6,” DeSantis said: “Criminal charges is not just because you may have done something wrong, it’s did you behave criminally, and I think what we’ve seen in this country is an attempt to criminalize politics and to try to criminalize differences.”
DeSantis then repeated his belief that the FBI and Department of Justice have been politicized and “weaponized.”
Responding to a follow up question about whether “Trump’s actions were wrong on Jan. 6,” DeSantis said: “I think it was shown how he was in the White House and didn’t do anything while things were going on, he should have come out more forcefully, of course.”
“But to try to criminalize that, that’s a different issue entirely and I think that we want to be in a situation where you don’t have one side just constantly trying to put the other side in jail,” DeSantis added.
If Trump is indicted in the Jan. 6 investigation, it would be the third indictment for the former president and the second by Smith.
