An unusual presidential race in 2024
The 2024 presidential race was already a bit unusual before this week — it's not often a former president runs for a non-consecutive term. Then came the candidacy of that former president's vice president — and a federal indictment.
Yes, on Wednesday, former Vice President Mike Pence announced his bid for president with a strong rebuke of his former boss, Donald Trump. Pence declared Trump “should never” be president again because he put himself above the Constitution on Jan. 6, 2021.
“The American people deserve to know, on that day, President Trump also demanded I choose between him and the Constitution. Now voters will be faced with the same choice. I chose the Constitution, and I always will,” Pence said.
To briefly recap: On Jan. 6, 2021, President Trump demanded Pence, in his role overseeing the ceremonial count of the electoral votes in the 2020 presidential race, reject or put on hold certain electoral votes in order to stall the conclusion of the presidential election. Pence, rightly, rejected Trump's demand because Pence had no authority to do so.
Trump would go on to denounce his vice president that day as fervent supporters of his stormed the Capitol, assaulted police officers and disrupted the count of the electoral votes.
It is unsurprising that Pence has politically broken from Trump given this. What is surprising is that he is launching what is widely seen as a longshot bid for the White House. According to the most recent RealClearPolitics polling average, just under 4% of Republican voters back Pence, compared to more than 50% for Trump and 22% for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Of course, the race is still early and a lot can happen.
Which, then, included news on Thursday that former President Donald Trump is facing federal charges related to his possession of classified documents.
Trump broke the news as only he can in a statement: “The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes
Hoax, even though Joe Biden has 1850 Boxes at the University of Delaware, additional Boxes in Chinatown, D.C., with even more Boxes at the University of Pennsylvania, and documents strewn all over his garage floor where he parks his Corvette, and which is `secured' by only a garage door that is paper thin, and open much of the time.”
According to The New York Times, “Mr. Trump is expected to appear in Federal District Court in Miami on Tuesday afternoon on charges including willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements and conspiracy to obstruct justice.”
This editorial board will refrain from commenting on the merits of these charges pending further information, but this is yet another unusual development. Trump is the first former president to be indicted on federal charges.
As with his previous indictment in New York, there are some longtime critics of Trump who are nonetheless critical of the nature of the charges against him.
Former Rep. Justin Amash, L-Michigan, who voted to impeach Trump, tweeted, “I'm categorically opposed to charging anyone under the Espionage Act, even those who seem obviously to have engaged in espionage. It has a terrible history of abuse. Government has employed it to avoid scrutiny and chill free speech, and it violates basic tenets of due process.”
But on the other side there are critics like Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who see the latest indictment as entirely Trump's fault and consistent with a pattern of misconduct. “Mr. Trump brought these charges upon himself by not only taking classified documents, but by refusing to simply return them when given numerous opportunities to do so,” Romney said in a statement. “These allegations are serious and if proven, would be consistent with his other actions offensive to the national interest, such as withholding defensive weapons from Ukraine for political reasons and failing to defend the Capitol from violent attack and insurrection.”
Stay tuned.