WASHINGTON — Several of former President Donald Trump’s rivals for the 2024 GOP nomination continued Sunday to attack the Justice Department, rather than Trump, over the indictment of the former president for allegedly mishandling classified documents.
That approach got pushback from another GOP candidate, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and from Bill Barr, Trump’s former attorney general, who said the Justice Department did not overreach by indicting Trump.
“This was a case entirely of his own making,” Barr said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
The comments on the Sunday morning shows illustrate how difficult it is for Republicans to navigate Trump’s indictment to preserve their own political fortunes while not eroding trust in the criminal justice system.
Hutchinson rejected the argument from some of his fellow Republicans that the Justice Department has been “weaponized.”
“Let’s don’t undermine the greatest justice system and criminal justice system and rule of law in the world today this side of heaven,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
But biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy said calling out what he sees as unfair treatment is the best way to build up trust in the Justice Department.
“I think it’s important for leaders, including like me, to stand up and call that out, unsparingly,” he said. “Under my watch, we’ll make sure the FBI, first of all, doesn’t exist as an institution.”
Similarly, both former Vice President Mike Pence and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott promised to get rid of top Justice Department officials if elected president.
“We’re going to clean house at the highest levels of the Department of Justice,” Pence said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” even as he continued to dodge the question of whether he would pardon Trump.
“I don’t know why some of my competitors in the Republican primary presume the president will be found guilty,” Pence said. “All we know is what the president has been accused of in the indictment. We don’t know what his defense is. We don’t know if this will even go to trial. It could be subject to a motion to dismiss. We don’t know what the verdict will be of the jury.”
Scott, who likewise wouldn’t say if he would pardon Trump, pledged to fire Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray “to restore confidence and integrity” in the Justice Department.
“This DOJ continues to hunt Republicans while it protects Democrats,” Scott said.
But Barr, who is not running for president, said Trump is not the victim of government overreach. When the Justice Department tried to retrieve the classified documents Trump had no legal right to keep, Barr said, the former president “jerked them around.”
“He provoked this whole problem himself,” Barr said. “Yes, he’s been the victim of unfair witch hunts in the past, but that doesn’t obviate the fact that he’s also a fundamentally flawed person who engages in reckless conduct and that leads to calamitous situations like this.”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is the GOP rival most willing to criticize Trump, struck a middle ground. Christie said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” there needs to be “change” at the Justice Department.
“But that’s a different issue than the conduct that Donald Trump engaged in,” he said. “And in my view, that’s not the conduct that we should have from someone who wants to be president of the United States again.”
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