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Hours after Donald Trump announced he expected to arrest him next week, his former vice president Mike Pence joined a chorus of Republicans criticizing the Manhattan district attorney and questioning his motives.
“Like many Americans, I’m just taken aback,” Pence told SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Saturday morning after Trump’s Truth Social announcement. “You have a big crime wave in New York, especially in New York. You have literally the Democratic Party that has literally dismantled the criminal justice system in that city, undermined the NYPD, and this is what the Manhattan DA says is their top priority?” referring to Alvin Bragg.
Pence continued: “It reeks of the kind of political persecution that we endured in the days of the Russian fraud and the whole impeachment over the phone call. And the one thing I do know is that I know former President Trump can take care of himself… But I have the same reaction to this, to these reports, that everyone else does.”
Former Vice President Still Stands With Trump Despite Former President ‘Threatening My Family’ Jan 6, 2021; A White House security official testified to the committee that members of Pence’s security went so far as to call their families to say goodbye, such was the fear for their lives and safety. Pence similarly said Trump should not face charges for his role in the Jan. 6 riots, and that “history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
The expected charges against Trump — believed to be related to a $130,000 payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels in October 2016 — come after years of extensive investigation by Manhattan prosecutors into alleged financial crimes, and come nearly two years after Trump’s longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg was indicted on tax fraud charges for facilitating the payment of $1.7 million in untaxed benefits to a former presidential aide.
“Here we go again – an outrageous abuse of power by a radical prosecutor who lets violent criminals walk while he exacts political revenge on President Trump,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tweeted Saturday after Trump’s announcement.
“I am directing the relevant commissions to immediately investigate whether federal funds are being used to undermine our democracy by interfering with elections through politically motivated prosecutions.”
As The rolling stone reported, within the twice-impeached former president’s inner political orbit, there is a widespread belief that any criminal charges by Manhattan prosecutors would only increase Trump’s popularity among Republican primary voters in 2024, a sentiment echoed by Marjorie Taylor Green on her disagreeable way on social networks.
“If the Manhattan prosecutor indicts President Trump, he will end up winning even more than he already has,” she tweeted Saturday.
“And those Republicans who stand by and cheer for his persecution or do nothing to stop him will be exposed to the people and will be remembered, despised and punished by the base. President Trump has done nothing wrong and has always fought for the American people, and we all know that, which is why we love him.”
