While it may be far from the minds of many throughout the country, who the frontrunner is for the 2024 presidential election — at least on the Republican side — could in part be influenced by Thursday's grand jury indictment of former President Donald Trump.
The indictment, an extraordinary development after years of investigations into Trump’s business, political and personal dealings, injects the Manhattan district attorney’s office into the heart of a national presidential race.
Arriving at a time of deep political divisions, the charges are likely to reinforce rather than reshape dueling perspectives of those who see accountability as long overdue and those who, like Trump, feel the Republican is being targeted for political purposes by a Democratic prosecutor.
As for his own take on the matter, Trump has previously said charges would actually help him in the 2024 presidential contest. In his response to the indictment, the former president continued attacks on the Manhattan district attorney, repeated claims of a stolen election and once again called the investigation a 'witch hunt' in his written statement. Read the Trump's full response to the indictment here.
Longtime ally Lindsey Graham, senator from South Carolina, said earlier this month that District Attorney Alvin Bragg “has done more to help Donald Trump get elected.” On Thursday, he called the indictment "one of the most irresponsible decisions in American history by any prosecutor."
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is said to be strongly considering joining the Republican field, called the indictment “un-American” in a statement Thursday night that pointedly did not mention Trump’s name. He also said in his tweet that Florida will not assist in an extradition request for Trump, although there have been no indications such a thing would be called for.
DeSantis has previously criticized the Trump investigation as politically motivated and “fundamentally wrong.” And in a world where GOP rivals fear Trump's base, it was big news that DeSantis held off for a days to criticize the potential prosecutor in the case, saying the case is "an example of pursuing a political agenda."
The governor slammed Bragg as a "Soros-funded prosecutor," referring to Democratic campaign backer George Soros, but offered little in defense of Trump, throwing one of his first jabs at the former president in a quip likely to intensify their rivalry. DeSantis said he personally doesn’t “know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some kind of alleged affair."
In a social media post, Trump has called DeSantis "Ron de Sanctimonious," and in a backhanded comment said the governor "will probably find out about FALSE ACCUSATIONS & FAKE STORIES sometime in the future, as he gets older, wiser, and better known, when he’s unfairly and illegally attacked by a woman, even classmates that are “underage” (or possibly a man!" He posted a photo of a much-younger DeSantis appearing to attend a party with students during his time as a teacher.
Comments by other potential rivals, eager to convince voters it is time to move on from the former president but also contending with the fact that he remains the most popular figure in the party:
— During an earlier visit to Iowa, former Vice President Mike Pence came to Trump's defense, calling the idea of indicting a former president “deeply troubling.” During a television interview Thursday night, he blasted the indictment further, saying is was "an outrage" and that "it appears to millions of Americans to be nothing more than a political prosecution that's driven by a prosecutor who literally ran for office on a pledge to indict the former president.
When asked if the indictment should disqualify Trump from running for president again, Pence declined to answer the question. He has previously said he would prefer a Republican alternative to Trump in the 2024 presidential election, stating that there are "better choices" out there.
— Asa Hutchinson, the former Arkansas governor mulling his own 2024 bid, previously said he didn’t expect Trump to withdraw from the race after an indictment, though that would be the “right” thing to do. On Thursday, Hutchinson called it “a dark day for America," while adding it is important that Trump be presumed innocent while the case plays out.
— Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the Virginia Republican often mentioned as a possible presidential candidate, on Twitter called it “beyond belief” that Bragg had sought to indict Trump "for pure political gain."
— Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a declared candidate who also served as Trump's U.N. ambassador, has said that Bragg's case is an attempt at scoring “political points," adding, "You never want to condone any sort of prosecution that's being politicized." She said in a tweet on Thursday that the prosecution "is more about revenge than it is about justice."
— Biotech investor Vivek Ramaswamy, who has already announced that he is running for president, said the indictment threatens to undermine public trust in the electoral and justice systems.
“At the end of the day, not one single person’s opinion of him will be any different after indictment than it was before,” veteran GOP operative Terry Sullivan said in an interview. “All of his perceived negatives are already baked into his name ID with voters.”
