Trump Challengers rummage for an angle of attack on his impeachment

Some republicans challenging the former president donald trump for the GOP presidential nomination are attacking the frontrunner as irresponsible in the wake of his indictment on charges of mishandling classified documents, adopting a noticeably less friendly tactic than their party counterparts as Trump prepares for his second indictment in three months on Tuesday.

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott (RS.C.), neither of whom is campaigning explicitly against Trump, suggested in interviews Monday that Trump’s behavior: is faces 37 felony chargesoutlined in a 49 page federal indictment last week, threatened national security.

Neither man completely abandoned the Republican line, continuing to suggest that the Justice Department unfairly attacked Trump because he is a conservative and an enemy of the Democratic president. Joe Biden. Still, his tentative criticism of Trump suggests his Republican opponents see a possible angle of attack against the party’s de facto leader.

The first opinion polls since the impeachment, released over the weekend by ABC News and CBS News, found that overwhelming majorities of Republicans support Trump, but also indicate that parts of the Republican electorate are not as obsessed with Trump’s personal grievances. Trump as himself.

Scott told reporters that Trump was facing a “serious case with serious charges” after an event that rolled out endorsements in his home state. haley, appearing on Fox Newssaid Trump was “unbelievably reckless with our national security” if the allegations contained in the indictment are “true.”

“Two things can be true at the same time. One, the Department of Justice and the FBI have lost all credibility with the American people,” Haley said. “Two, the second thing may also be true: if this allegation is true, if what it says is really the case, President Trump was incredibly reckless with our national security.”

(It’s worth noting that Haley’s first “true” statement is far from it, based on available polling: last year, gallup found 50% of Americans believe the FBI is doing a “good” or “excellent” job, while 21% said it was doing a “fair” job and 28% said it was doing a “poor” job.) .

ABC News Poll, made with Ipsosfound that the public was more likely to think the charges in the federal indictment were serious than they were to think the same of the April indictment in Manhattan, on fraud charges related to hush money payments: 61% of Americans think the new charges are serious, compared to just 52% in April.

Notably, the largest increase in Americans calling the charges serious comes from the Republican Party: While just 21% of Republicans thought the Manhattan charges were serious, 38% said the same about the federal charges in the case. of classified documents.

Despite acknowledging the seriousness of the charges, Republicans were no more likely to say Trump should face prosecution than they were in April. Because? Mainly because they are much more likely than other Americans to believe the charges are politically motivated: an 80% majority of Republicans say the charges are politically motivated, compared to a 47% plurality of all Americans. (37% of Americans think the charges are not politically motivated, and the rest of the population isn’t sure.)

The CBS News poll, made with YouGov, finds similar small cracks in Trump’s supposedly impenetrable wall of support. And to be clear, the cracks are small: 40% of Republican primary voters said impeachment would make them more likely to vote for Trump, while just 4% said it would make them less likely. A 56% majority said it would have no effect.

Two other questions posed by CBS hint at some burnout with Trump perpetual complaint machine: When asked if they wanted to hear Trump discuss “the legal cases and investigations against him,” only 39% of likely Republican primary voters said they would, while 61% said no. Comparatively, 92% want to hear Trump discuss his plans for a second term.

And while Trump has his own personal obsessions with loyalty, Republican voters place a little less emphasis on the issue: Just 31% said that a candidate other than Trump, if he wins the Republican nomination, should “show loyalty” to the former president. A 64% majority said they would prefer the candidate not talk about Trump at all. (The never-Trump crowd is still minuscule: only 4% wanted a candidate who would attack Trump.)

And while Scott and Haley dove in the water to confront Trump, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie remains the most poised Republican ticket to challenge the president.

Appearing on CNN on Monday night, Christie said that Trump was dragging the country through his own personal dramas. “This is vanity gone mad.” he said. “The ego goes crazy.”

Other Republican candidates are far more interested in defending Trump and criticizing the Justice Department, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the former president’s biggest rival for the 2024 nomination. Another candidate, biotech businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, plans to appear in Miami on Tuesday to present a press conference in defense of Trump.