North Carolina’s top Republican legislative leaders worry that the newest criminal charges against former President Donald Trump could harm the GOP’s chances of taking back the White House.
“Every time he gets indicted, it strengthens him within the party,” State Senate leader Phil Berger said. “And, arguably, it makes it harder for him to actually win.”
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Trump himself appears to agree with the first part of that analysis — as do other party insiders, who have sought to downplay a string of charges against the former president by painting federal prosecutors as politically motivated. And Trump has continued to cast himself as the only candidate capable of beating Democratic President Joe Biden — an assertion that many GOP voters believe, despite charges against the president in other cases.
Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore Moore, who spoke with reporters at the state house Thursday ahead of a scheduled arraignment on new charges that were unsealed on Tuesday, voiced similar accusations of politically motivated charges on Thursday. But they also acknowledged, from their vantage point as party leaders in a key swing state, that the indictments against Trump aren’t as easily brushed off as Trump and others have suggested they should be.
“I mean obviously it's not helpful, right, to have your strongest candidate under some sort of indictment,” Moore said. “But a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. I do think there's politics involved with the indictments. As I look at it and see it, it strikes me that it's got a political smell to it.”
In a speech in June at the annual North Carolina GOP convention, Trump welcomed a different set of criminal charges against him, for mishandling classified documents, because that indictment caused Republicans to ally around him and increase their donations to his campaign.
“In a sick way, I kind of enjoy it,” Trump said at that speech in Greensboro, WRAL reported.
Trump was indicted on felony charges again Tuesday, this time for his role in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters — the latest in a string of cases resulting in charges against the former president.
Research from AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of the electorate, found that 62% of Republican voters in the 2022 midterm elections believed Biden was not legitimately elected.
Both Berger and Moore are declining to endorse anyone in the GOP presidential primary, they told reporters Thursday. Both said they’d support Trump again if he is the party’s nominee.
“Almost depending on where you fall on the political spectrum,” Berger said, “you either think that former President Trump is a danger to the entire Republic and something needs to be done because of the things he’s done, or you think that the Biden administration and other Democratic district attorneys are engaged in a witch hunt. I don’t know enough information to say with any certainty.”
North Carolina's senior U.S. Senator, Thom Tillis, wrote on social media that since many Republicans believe Trump and other GOP leaders' claims of the prosecution being politically motivated, he and his colleagues in Congress need to keep a close eye on the U.S. Department of Justice.
"Given the public’s declining confidence in the impartiality of the DOJ and concerns over the perception of a two-tiered justice system, Congress must conduct robust oversight of the investigation and the ultimate decision to prosecute President Trump," Tillis wrote.
In 2021, when he voted against impeaching Trump over the Jan. 6 attacks, Tillis explained that decision at the time by suggesting a criminal investigation was the proper outcome rather than an impeachment in Congress.
"An impeachment trial is not the best or only way to hold a former elected official accountable for their actions," he wrote in 2021. "The ultimate accountability is through our criminal justice system where political passions are checked and due process is constitutionally mandated. No president is above the law or immune from criminal prosecution, and that includes former President Trump."
'Only strengthened his standing'
Political observers have marveled at the support Trump has maintained in face of the charges, and some don’t expect the latest indictment to affect Trump’s favorability among GOP voters.
“These indictments have only strengthened his standing within the Republican Party,” Michael Bitzer, a Catawba College political science professor, told WRAL on Wednesday. “I think the narrative that [Trump] and his campaign have made is that this is a political witch hunt in these indictments certainly resonates with his core support.”
If Trump wins the GOP primary, which polls indicate he’s currently positioned to do, the country could face the unprecedented prospect of an election season in which one major party’s nominee is tried for — and potentially found guilty of — felony crimes.
Chris Cooper, political science and public affairs professor at Western Carolina University, thinks that Trump’s most ardent supporters will likely stick by him, but some might fall off the bandwagon.
“There are some number of voters who may like Donald Trump's policies, may like conservative policies, may like Republican policies, but are just kind of done,” Cooper told WRAL Wednesday. “Whether they're going to go ahead and vote for Joe Biden, I don't know, or whether they actually skip the top of the ticket.”
WRAL Capitol Bureau Chief Laura Leslie and the Associated Press contributed to this report.