GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy insists that indictments against former president Donald Trump are “politicized persecutions” indicating the country is careening toward a lawless state of affairs.
Mr. Trump’s Georgia indictment should be evaluated “in the context of the three that preceded it,” Mr. Ramaswamy said at his town hall with NewsNation on Monday night. “The reality is this—these are politicized persecutions through prosecution. And I say this as somebody who is running in some polls third, in some polls second. It would be a lot easier for me if Donald Trump were not in this primary. But that is not how I want to win this election.”
“The way we do elections in the United States of America is that we the people, you all, get to decide who governs. Not the federal police state,” Mr. Ramaswamy stated.
“I do not want to see us become some banana republic, where the party in power, whoever that party is, use police force to indict its political opponents in the middle of an election on unprecedented and untested legal theories. That is wrong. And I stand not on the side of self-interest but on the side of principle.”
The presidential hopeful also said that if he wins the 2024 race, he would consider Mr. Trump as an adviser. “I think Trump was an excellent president.”
“I think his defeat of Hillary Clinton in 2016 was an important political event that stopped the leftward march through our government and our institutions,” he said.
“And so I expect to take him as an adviser as well as I’m actually taking to the next level our America first agenda, shutting down that administrative state.”
“There were some forces that stopped him that I expect will not stop me. But I will be proud to still learn from the foundation that he laid and even understand what he would have done differently.”
Meanwhile, Ms. Clinton called the Trump indictments as proof of the American judicial system at work.
“The only satisfaction may be that the system is working,” she said in an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. “That all of the efforts by Donald Trump, his allies, and his enablers to try to silence the truth, to try to undermine democracy have been brought into the light. And justice is being pursued.”
Ms. Clinton’s statements have come under criticism given her opposition to the 2016 election results. After her loss to Donald Trump in 2016, she insisted that he was not a “legitimate” president.
Violating President Trump’s Rights
Mr. Trump and 18 other individuals were indicted in Georgia by a grand jury in Fulton County on Monday, alleging that the former president attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 elections in the state.Fulton County had posted the indictment on its website even before the grand jury had finished convening, which Mr. Ramaswamy called as “downright pathetic” and a violation of Mr. Trump’s constitutional right to due process of law.
“Prosecutors should not be deciding U.S. presidential elections, and if they’re so overzealous that they commit constitutional violations, then the cases should be thrown out & they should be held accountable,” he said in an Aug. 14 post on X (formerly Twitter).
Earlier this month, Mr. Ramaswamy filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DoJ) in the district court of Columbia for allegedly failing to respond to his Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request related to the classified documents case against President Trump.
In an Aug. 2 post on X, Mr. Ramaswamy had also committed to pardoning Mr. Trump following the third indictment against the former president.
Persecuting Trump
During an interview with Fox News, legal expert Alan Dershowitz said that the four indictments against Mr. Trump are “designed to get quick convictions in jurisdictions that are heavily loaded against Donald Trump.” The cases risk turning the United States into a “banana republic,” he warned.“If you’re going after the man running for president against your person, you have to have the strongest case. Otherwise, it becomes a banana republic. Anybody can prosecute anybody. And we’re opening the door to prosecution of Democrats by Republicans, Republicans by Democrats,” he said.
“It’s what Alexander Hamilton wrote in The Federalist is the most dangerous threat to democracy, and we’re seeing it unfold in front of our eyes. Very, very tragically.”
Republicans have come together to support Mr. Trump following the Georgia indictment.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) accused the Biden administration of having “weaponized government against his leading political opponent to interfere in the 2024 election,” according to an Aug. 15 post at X.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) claimed that Mr. Trump was being persecuted. “Today’s indictment is just the latest political attack in the Democrats’ WITCH HUNT against President Trump. He did nothing wrong!” Mr. Jordan said in an Aug. 15 post at X.
“Everything that Donald Trump and his associates did in Georgia is EXACTLY what the Al Gore team did when contesting the 2000 election in Florida. Part of that team Alan Dershowitz confirmed that they did all the same things, made all the same calls on Gore’s behalf,” radio host Mark Simone said in an Aug. 15 post at X.
