{"id":15725,"date":"2023-07-20T03:44:53","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T08:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=15725"},"modified":"2023-07-20T03:44:59","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T08:44:59","slug":"gop-senators-hold-back-on-defending-trump-as-he-faces-new-indictment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=15725","title":{"rendered":"GOP senators hold back on defending Trump as he faces new indictment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The revelation<\/u><\/a> that former President Trump faces a possible grand jury indictment connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and his efforts to hold on to power has landed like a bombshell on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers saw firsthand the violence unleashed that day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some GOP lawmakers rushed to Trump\u2019s defense, but many Republicans in the Senate held back from defending the former president, who has been accused of stoking the Jan. 6 mob and who waited before calling on protesters to disperse.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The expected indictment separately poses a tough political problem for many Republicans critical of Trump, who remains wildly popular with the party\u2019s base. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell\u2002<\/u><\/a>(Ky.), who hasn\u2019t spoken to Trump since December 2020, stayed quiet about the news of yet another indictment against his onetime ally, who is now leading the Republican presidential primary field by 30 points in national polls.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His top deputies, Senate Republican Whip John Thune\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-S.D.) and Sen. John Cornyn\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Texas), reacted with caution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether it would be \u201clegitimate\u201d for special counsel Jack Smith\u2002<\/u><\/a>to charge Trump for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Thune said it would depend on the facts and evidence presented.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s going to depend on whether or not laws were broken,\u201d he said. \u201cSo clearly, I don\u2019t know what they\u2019re looking at. But I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll know in due time.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cornyn dodged the politically charged topic altogether, arguing the Justice Department has the authority to investigate whether Trump broke the laws in trying to stop the certification of the 2020 election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s entirely within the purview of the Department of Justice and has nothing to do with the United States Senate,\u201d he said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked if Smith is a \u201ccredible prosecutor,\u201d he said, \u201cI have no knowledge of anything approaching that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Wyo.), who called the indictment of Trump last month for violating the Espionage Act \u201cpolitical\u201d and \u201crotten,\u201d was the only senior member of the Republican leadership to accuse the Justice Department of acting on political motives.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt looks like the president is targeting his most popular opponent. Isn\u2019t that interesting? Sounds political to me,\u201d he said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked if he saw any qualitative difference between the 37 felony counts federal prosecutors brought against Trump last month for refusing to turn over classified documents he kept improperly at Mar-a-Lago and new charges related to Jan. 6, Barrasso saw both indictments as political attacks.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The revelation that former President Trump faces a possible grand jury indictment connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and his efforts to hold on to power has landed like a bombshell on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers saw firsthand the violence unleashed that day.  Some GOP lawmakers rushed to Trump\u2019s defense, but many Republicans in the Senate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":15726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1705,9958,9959,1230,2033],"class_list":["post-15725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-defense","tag-new-indictments","tag-republican-lawmakers","tag-trump","tag-violence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15727,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15725\/revisions\/15727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}