Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.), one of the top Senate Republicans, decried the indictment of former President Donald Trump on 34 felony charges as a “political agenda run amok,” as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) continues to avoid commenting on the topic.
On April 4, Trump appeared at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, where Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged him with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to an alleged “hush money” payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016. Daniels claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006, a charge which Trump denies.
Thune, in an appearance on a local South Dakota station, decried the investigation.
“I understand that this is the beginning of a legal process, not the end of one. But after an initial review of the details, this indictment looks like a political agenda run amok,” Thune said.
Trump had earlier revealed on Truth Social that he expected to be arrested by Bragg in coming days. At that time, Thune followed McConnell’s lead in staying silent on the topic.
McConnell, a longtime Trump rival, has remained silent. He has often clashed with Trump and more recently referred to Jan. 6 as “a violent insurrection” for which he placed the blame on the former president.
Notably, other Republicans like Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who also has clashed with Trump, shared Thune’s assessment that there were political motives in the case.
Romney expressed his sense that Bragg “stretched [charges] … in order to fit a political agenda.”
In a statement, he repeated a common Democrat talking point that “no one is above the law,” but added that “everyone is entitled to equal treatment under the law.”
‘Completely Underwhelming’
Other Senate Republicans have dismissed Bragg’s case as “completely underwhelming.”“Alvin Bragg’s indictment of Donald Trump could have been copied and pasted by a first-year law student,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in a Twitter post. “It’s completely underwhelming.”
Many Republicans pointed to Bragg’s track record as DA. Bragg ran for and won his post by promising to reduce criminal penalties for a litany of crimes. In 2022, he reduced 52 percent of felony charges to misdemeanors amid a record-breaking violent crime wave in New York City.
Yet, Bragg has said he is mounting the case against Trump because, “We cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct.”
In the past, he received funding from left-wing billionaire George Soros.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) shared her colleagues’ concerns that Bragg’s motives in pursuing the case are political.
“Instead of focusing on actual crime, Alvin Bragg, a far-left, Soros-backed prosecutor, is conducting a politically motivated witch hunt against a former president,” Blackburn said.
Still other Senate Republicans have warned of catastrophic long-term effects on U.S. political processes.
“Today, American politics crosses a line that it’s never going to come back from,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in a video posted to his Twitter page after Trump’s arraignment. “... especially on the basis of how ridiculous these charges are.”
Specifically, Rubio said that the case gives a green light to prosecutors on both the left and right to target their political enemies.
“What’s going to stop them? Nothing’s going to stop them. Because today we set a new normal,” Rubio said. “Today, we set the new normal that if you really want to take someone down, nothing should stop you. You should be able to manipulate the law any way you want to charge someone.”
