Donald Trump’s Opponents Say He Shouldn’t ‘Get Charged’ for Capitol Riots: “Won’t Be Good for Country”

The January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and former President Donald Trump's unparalleled attempts to rig an election he lost have become the new decisive moment in the GOP presidential primaries for 2024. Federal prosecutors are potentially about to charge Trump in connection with the January 6 insurrection, but many of the top GOP candidates have argued that he should not be charged, HuffPost reported.

Trump's main competitor, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, claimed last week that the former president should have reacted more "forcefully" when supporters he encouraged to march on the Capitol broke in. However, DeSantis shared that he feels that this did not constitute a criminal act. “I hope he doesn’t get charged. I don’t think it’ll be good for the country,” DeSantis said of Trump, per USA TODAY, who defied advisors and even his own daughter by refusing to instruct his followers to leave the Capitol.

Former Vice President Mike Pence echoed the idea, blaming Trump for putting his and his family's lives in peril during the attack. “While his words were reckless, based on what I know, I am not yet convinced that they were criminal,” Pence said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. Trump frequently chastised the former vice president for failing to try to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election. Trump supporters went as far as to create makeshift gallows outside the Capitol on January 6, screaming "Hang Mike Pence."

Meanwhile, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, stated Monday on CNBC that she would back Trump if he becomes the Republican nominee in 2024. Haley has termed Trump's legal problems a “distraction,” suggesting that they would harm his chances in a general election campaign, but she, too, has stood with Trump and other Republicans in opposing the DOJ pressing charges.

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who was also in the Capitol during the January 6 incident, said last week that he would “only hold responsible the very people who threatened my life, and the former president did not threaten my life.”

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson are the only contenders in the campaign who have strongly criticized Trump over Jan 6 and labeled his behavior dishonorable. However, both men poll in the low single digits, at the bottom of the field. Christie has regularly chastised Trump and other candidates, including DeSantis and Scott, for failing to call out the former president.

“When you say the president’s not responsible for Jan 6, I can’t not say something about that, it’s ridiculous, and Tim’s better than that,” Christie said of Scott. “It is disgraceful what [Trump] did that day. And it is disappointing that Tim Scott said what he said,” he added.

“While Donald Trump would like the American people to believe that he is the victim in this situation, the truth is that the real victims of Jan 6 were our democracy, our rule of law, and those Capitol Police officers who worked valiantly to protect our Capitol,” Hutchinson said. 

References:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-2024-january-6_n_64bfd558e4b038c60ccbc4d7

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/07/18/desantis-trump-jan-6-target-investigation/70424866007/

https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2023/07/23/mike-pence-jan-6-dana-bash-sotu-vpx.cnn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gpDE58k1so