As the president continues to avoid explicitly addressing his predecessor’s four criminal indictments, Cedric Richmond, co-chair of Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, stated on Sunday that the focus of the campaign won’t be on Donald Trump’s legal troubles.
Richmond, formerly a top counselor to Biden in the White House, said in an interview with ABC News’ “This Week” that “the president has stated from the beginning that he desired an independent Justice Department, so we have to do just that.” “As a result, we won’t comment. We won’t pay attention to Donald Trump’s legal issues.
In recent months, Biden has attacked GOP front-runner Trump over a number of topics, including his Make America Great Again platform, but he has remained silent on the four separate indictments toward Trump that have dogged the early race for the White House.
Biden published a link to donate to his campaign on X, the social media network formerly known as Twitter, as Trump drove to the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta on Thursday night to submit to charges associated with his attempts to rescind the 2020 election results in Georgia, a crucial state. In the message, he stated, “Apropos of nothing, I think today’s a great day to give to my campaign.”
Biden wasn’t referring to the indictment, according to Richmond, who stated, “No, those emails go out; you get five to six of them every day, so I wouldn’t read much into that.”
In separate investigations, special counsel Jack Smith accused Trump this month on federal charges of having conspired to defraud the nation and attempted to thwart the peaceful transfer of presidential power to Biden. In addition, he indicted him in June over his alleged handling of classified documents after leaving office.
Along with 18 other defendants, Trump was indicted this month on felony state counts in relation to alleged efforts to rig the Georgia 2020 election. A grand jury in New York City chose to prosecute Trump in March in a case focusing on hush money payments made at the end of his 2016 campaign. At the time, Trump was the first former president to be charged with a crime. The fourth indictment came months later.
In the hush money, confidential materials, and electoral conspiracy cases, Trump has entered a not-guilty plea. He has vigorously denied any misconduct in statements in all four cases, but his arraignment in the Georgia case, at which he will be given the opportunity to enter a plea, has not yet been scheduled.
Trump chose not to take part in the first Republican presidential debate held last week, during which the other contenders were questioned if they would still support him as the party’s nominee despite his felony convictions.
Except for former governors of New Jersey Chris Christie and Arkansas Asa Hutchinson, most of the candidates on stage raised their hands in favor of Trump.
In an interview with ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Christie, a former Trump buddy who distanced himself from him after his irrational allegations of massive election fraud, said it was “amazing” that the majority of his Republican competitors claimed they would back Trump as the ultimate nominee.
The concept that most of my rivals think we can nominate a convicted felon as president that they’d support it and that he could win was, in Christie’s opinion, the most stunning aspect of the debate. I don’t believe that is possible.
Hutchinson concurred with Christie’s criticism of Trump, which is common.
Well, I was shocked. The issue of whether we would still support Donald Trump if he is found guilty of significant charges was brought up quite clearly. In an appearance with CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Hutchinson said, “And I was the only one who… expressed very clearly that I would not support him. “I was taken aback by that. I didn’t think that was a challenging question.
A counsel for Donald Trump disputed, however, that his campaign is worried about the growing criminal allegations, which it has characterized as a political smear job.
“We’re not worried,” Alina Habba said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” “because we know the facts of these cases, which I obviously can’t get into for privileged reasons.” However, I can reveal that it’s for tying him up. It is undoubtedly political.