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   From: nowomr@protonmail.com   
      
   GOP fears Trump legal woes will boomerang on them   
      
   They say the battle between the Justice Department and Trump, who pleaded   
   not guilty Tuesday to charges that he violated the Espionage Act and   
   obstructed justice with his handling of classified documents, will become   
   a primary litmus test — just as his unsubstantiated claims that the 2020   
   election was stolen became a prominent point of debate in last year’s GOP   
   primaries.   
      
   They also worry Trump’s dominance of the media spotlight will turn off   
   swing voters — especially suburban women — and hurt their chances of   
   taking back the Senate or protecting their small House majority.   
      
   Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who has endorsed Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) for   
   president, told reporters on Tuesday there’s “no question” the “serious”   
   allegations against Trump will hurt the GOP if he is the nominee.   
   The Hill Elections 2024 coverage   
      
   Rounds said voters will ultimately decide whether the charges disqualify   
   Trump from holding office, but he predicted they will create a headwind.   
      
   “Voters are going to make that determination, but most certainly for a lot   
   of us as you look at that, it’s not going to help,” he said. “This is not   
   good for our party, clearly not good for our party.”   
      
   Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) also warned Republicans will pay   
   the price if Trump and his various legal battles dominate the political   
   debate next year.   
      
   “I think if you look at the record, in ’18, ’20, and ’22, when he’s the   
   issue, we lose,” Thune said, referring to Republicans’ loss of the House   
   in the 2018 midterm election, their loss of the White House and Senate in   
   the 2020 election and Senate Republicans’ failure to take back the upper   
   chamber in 2022.   
      
   “I would rather have the issue be Biden and his policies. I think the way   
   that you do that is you have a different nominee,” said Thune, who has   
   also endorsed Scott for president.   
   Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.)   
      
   Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) speaks during the weekly press conference   
   following the Republican luncheon at the Capitol on Tuesday, June 13,   
   2023.   
      
   Asked whether he was worried the indictment could drag down the party in   
   2024, Thune replied: “I’m worried obviously about the Senate races.”   
      
   “There’s no question the political environment affects that, and the top   
   of the ticket is part of the political environment,” he said.   
      
   Thune acknowledged the legal battle could help Trump in a primary, but he   
   argued it would hurt the GOP at large in a general election.   
      
   “Everybody says, ‘Well, it gives him a political bump,’ and all that, and   
   that may be true with the political base but, again, the people who decide   
   national elections are the middle of the electorate. It’s the soccer moms,   
   it’s the suburban voters, it’s younger voters, and I just think we’ve got   
   a candidate who can appeal to those,” he said.   
      
   “A lot of the drama and the chaos that seems to be happening with an   
   ongoing basis [with Trump] makes it harder to win those types of voters,”   
   Thune observed.   
      
      
   Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters after last   
   year’s disappointing midterm election that the “chaos” and “negativity”   
   surrounding Trump hurt Senate GOP candidates, though he didn’t mention   
   Trump by name.   
      
   On Tuesday, however, McConnell declined to go anywhere near Trump’s legal   
   troubles when asked whether he would support the former president if he   
   wins the party’s nomination.   
      
   “I’m just simply not going to comment on the candidates,” he said when   
   asked about supporting Trump, noting the Republican presidential primary   
   has been playing out for the past six months and will last for another   
   year.   
      
   Asked about the indictment itself and whether Trump did anything wrong,   
   McConnell replied: “I’m not going to start commenting on the various   
   candidates we have running for president. There are a lot of them; it’s   
   going to be interesting to watch.”   
      
   McConnell’s caution reflects in part the fact many GOP senators and Senate   
   Republican candidates remain ardent fans of the former president.   
      
   Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) missed an important vote Tuesday on Biden’s   
   nominee to serve as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers; he was   
   headed to Trump’s New Jersey golf club to attend a Trump rally.   
      
   Also on Tuesday, first-term Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) announced he would put   
   a hold on Biden’s nominees to the Justice Department to protest the   
   federal prosecution of Trump.   
      
   “If Merrick Garland wants to use these officials to harass Joe Biden’s   
   political opponents, we will grind his department to a halt,” Vance said   
   in a statement.   
      
      
   Vance’s hold will require Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to   
   go through the time-consuming process of scheduling votes on individual   
   nominees.   
      
      
   “I think voters see [the indictment] for what it is. It is politically   
   motivated, clearly,” he said.   
      
   He noted that Trump has already faced two impeachment trials and multiple   
   accusations over the years, including his recent indictment on 34 felony   
   charges by the Manhattan district attorney and a jury’s decision to award   
   author E. Jean Carroll $5 million in damages after finding the former   
   president liable for sexual abuse and defamation.   
      
   “There’s always a lot of a lot around President Trump,” he said.   
      
      
      
   He disagreed with Senate Republican colleagues who blame Trump for the   
   failure to win back the majority last year.   
      
   “If Senate Republicans want to blame somebody for that, we should go get a   
   mirror,” he said.   
      
   A June 7-10 CBS/YouGov poll of 2,480 adults showed Trump leading his   
   nearest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by 38 percentage points. The   
   survey recontacted 1,798 respondents after the federal indictment was   
   unsealed.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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