Trump looms over gathering of GOP candidates

Former president not invited to conference

ATLANTA — Erick Erickson opened his conservative conference Friday in Atlanta with an admonition that Donald Trump shouldn’t be the focus of an event that drew six other White House hopefuls.

But the specter of the former president was impossible to avoid in a city where he was days ago indicted on charges of orchestrating a “criminal enterprise” to subvert the will of Georgia voters in 2020.

One Republican presidential contender after another tiptoed around Trump’s legal peril, which grew this week to include the Fulton County indictment that amounts to the most sprawling of the four leveled against the former president.

But each candidate studiously avoided condemning Trump or citing the many charges against him as a threat to the party’s 2024 chances against President Joe Biden. Instead, they scoured for other ways to distinguish themselves from the GOP front-runner without alienating his supporters.

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott promised to clean house at the Justice Department. Former Vice President Mike Pence ticked through policy contrasts with his former boss. And Florida Gov. Ron Desantis warned against allowing background noise to distract Republicans from defeating Biden.

“I hope we’ll be focused on the future of the country, rather than the other static that’s out there right now,” Desantis said to hundreds of conservatives at the Gathering.

“A lot of the static, a lot of the things about looking backward, is not going to help us secure this border,” the Florida governor added. “That is not going to help these middle-class families who are struggling.”

The candidates’ restrained approach to Trump has shaped a race that has remained remarkably stable despite the drumbeat of criminal charges against the former president.

With few exceptions, Trump’s rivals have avoided confronting him over the indictments he faces in Atlanta, Miami, New York and Washington. Trump predicted the charges, which he dismisses as a corrupt “witch hunt,” will bolster his comeback bid by unifying conservatives.

The lone politician on the stage to take an edgier approach was Gov. Brian Kemp, whose once close alliance with Trump shattered in 2020 after the then-president blamed him for his election defeat.

But even Kemp didn’t mention Trump’s name, instead predicting a Fulton County trial won’t take place until after the November 2024 election.

“We have to be focused on the future — not something that happened three years ago. You don’t need to be focused on stupid things that aren’t going to happen before this election,” he said. “We can deal with that later, after we win.”

The attempt at a Trump-free tone at the Grand Hyatt Buckhead was set early by Erickson, the News 95.5 AM 750 WSB host who has long organized the event. In 2015, he famously disinvited Trump amid a bitter feud. This year, Trump was left off Erickson’s invite list entirely.

Erickson said he solicited 300 questions from the audience that mostly focused on domestic security, fiscal policy and other agenda items that have gone overlooked.

“I don’t know the answers to those questions from the candidates,” he said, “because all the media asks about is the indictments.”

Still, Trump even colored those conversations. Pence reminded the audience about his refusal to block Biden’s victory after a pro-trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol. But he spent more time telling conservatives about key issues where he and Trump differ.

“I’ve debated Trump a thousand times,” he said to laughs. “Just not with the cameras on.”

Arvin Temkar The Atlanta Journal-constitution Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Gathering on Friday about how he differed from former President Donald Trump.