Donald Trump’s stranglehold on the Republican Party showed some signs of weakening Monday as an influential GOP senator questioned the twice-indicted former president’s electability.
Trump remains the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination even as he awaits arraignment Tuesday on 37 federal charges pertaining to his mishandling classified information.
“Well, it’s not good,” Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a close ally of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said of the former president’s latest indictment.
Cornyn went on to criticize Trump for not trying to widen his appeal beyond loyal ultra-conservatives. “I think his unwillingness to appeal to voters beyond his base makes it unlikely that he could win a general election,” he said.
John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Senate Republican, called the allegations against Trump “serious” but said the Justice Department will face a “high burden of proof.”
“The president deserves his day in court. He’ll have that opportunity,” Thune said. Asked if the latest charges make it more difficult for his party to take back the Senate next year, Thune paused and said, “As you know, I’ve endorsed Tim Scott.”
Earlier: Trump Retains His Base With Risk of Political Violence in Focus
Scott, South Carolina’s junior senator, is one of several Republicans challenging Trump for the 2024 nomination.
Other Senate Republicans like Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski if Alaska, who both voted to convict Trump at his 2021 impeachment trial in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, have issued statements on the gravity of the federal charges.
More hard-line Republicans, however, have sought to capitalize on the charges against Trump with statements decrying what they saw as unequal justice, or to raise funds off of the indictment.
Author: Nancy Ognanovich and Steven T. Dennis
