Trump set for rape trial as Pence floats presidential bid
Years after arguing that Hillary Clinton shouldn’t be allowed to run for president due to investigations by the FBI, the Republican Party is standing by the twice-impeached Donald Trump despite the GOP frontrunner’s recent 34-count felony indictment.
President Joe Biden is expected to announce his all-but-certain bid for a second term in the White House. Sources tell The Washington Post that Biden’s re-election campaign is set to launch on Tuesday, which is also the fourth anniversary since he announced his 2020 presidential run.
While Biden plans his re-election campaign launch, Trump is preparing for a trial involving columnist E. Jean Carroll, who accused the former president of sexual assault in the mid-1990s.
After Carroll shared her story in a 2019 memoir, Trump denied the allegations, noting “she’s not my type.”
Trump, who is not expected to be called as a witness by the prosecution, has hinted through his attorneys that he won’t be appearing in court at all.
In a letter to the judge, Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, indicated his client "wishes to appear" at the trial but would rather avoid "the logistical burdens that his presence, as the former president, would cause the courthouse and New York City."
The attorneys for Carroll aren’t convinced, and apparently neither is the presiding judge.
Responding to Tacopina, U.S. District Judge Lewis Caplan scrutinized Trump’s reasoning for not attending, noting he is slated to attend a campaign event in New Hampshire on the third day of the trial.
"If the Secret Service can protect him at that event, certainly the Secret Service, the Marshals Service and the City of New York can see to his security in this very secure federal courthouse," Kaplan wrote.
As the number of Republican presidential candidates continues to grow, one prominent Trump administration official is ruling out a bid for the White House.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he is not running for the Republican nomination. Pompeo would have been the second former Trump Cabinet member to run.
Meanwhile, former Vice President Mike Pence is testing the waters for a potential presidential campaign.
Speaking on Fox News last week, Pence hinted at the need for the GOP to move on from Trump.
“I really do believe no one could have defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016 other than Donald Trump,” Pence said. “But with all the challenges we’re facing… I truly do believe that different times call for different leadership.”
The field of presidential candidates grows
On Apr. 12, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott took the next step in announcing his bid for president. The Republican announced the formation of an exploratory committee, telling The Associated Press earlier this month that conservatives are “starved for hope.”
But how serious is an exploratory committee? And do politicians ever decide against mounting a campaign because of the committee’s work?
Exploratory committees are essentially a soft launch for White House hopefuls. They allow prospective candidates to start raising money without officially putting their names on the ballot.
It’s not completely unheard of for exploratory committees to end without a campaign. Just look at Trump’s 2000 committee with the Reform Party.
Scott, the lone Black Republican in the Senate, would face another South Carolina politician in former Gov. Nikki Haley, the same person who appointed Scott to a Senate seat in 2012.
Asa Hutchinson, who served as governor of Arkansas from 2015 until he was succeeded by Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year, is expected to make his bid for president official this week.
Noting that "an alternative to Donald Trump is the best thing in the right direction" last month, Hutchinson has been a long-time critic of Republican efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
But aside from his distaste for Trump, Hutchinson is a die-hard right-winger who resumed executions in Arkansas in 2017, signed a near-total abortion ban in 2021, and introduced legislation that same year that allowed doctors to refuse non-emergency health treatment to LGBTQIA+ individuals.
Meanwhile, Biden is facing another Democratic challenger, and despite his family name, he’s considered a bigger longshot than spiritual guru Marianne Williamson.
Anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nephew of President John F. Kennedy, made his bid official last week. It’s the first time Kennedy has dipped his toes into running for public office.
He’s recently made a name for himself as one of the leading figures of COVID-19 misinformation, penning three books in the last two years alone about the virus, Bill Gates, big pharma, and more.
Even Kennedy’s own family has criticized his anti-vaccine views, which he promoted even before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, three family members published an op-ed in POLITICO aptly titled “RFK Jr. Is Our Brother and Uncle. He’s Tragically Wrong About Vaccines.”
The family members say they love Kennedy, "but he is part of a misinformation campaign that’s having heartbreaking—and deadly—consequences."