Trump booking set to overshadow GOP debate

Trump set to surrender hours after GOP debate

Fulton County Jail

Donald Trump will not be attending the Republican debate in Milwaukee on Wednesday night (and he has hinted that he will skip future debates as well). Instead, the GOP frontrunner will be en route to Atlanta to be booked on charges stemming from his attempts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.

His Republican rivals will face off in their first debate of the 2024 election season. But make no mistake: Trump’s absence will almost certainly loom large over the two-hour strip, which will air live on Fox News and will be moderated by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.

Trump’s opponents have taken different approaches to his legal troubles. Rather than attack and/or criticize him, some of them have instead echoed his claims that this is all a political persecution.

Take Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for example. DeSantis, widely seen as Trump’s main rival, has said on social media that he will end the weaponization of government and replace the FBI director. He has also called Washington, D.C. a “swamp,” a term that was first coined by Trump.

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott suggested that the Georgia indictment was un-American. "We see the legal system being weaponized against political opponents that is un-American and unacceptable,” the South Carolina Republican said at the Iowa State Fair. “At the end of the day, we need a better system than that.” Scott has also said that he would fire FBI Director Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee (whom Scott himself voted to confirm).

Then there’s Vivek Ramaswamy, a billionaire biotechnology entrepreneur and an insurgent candidate who has said that he will pardon the former President on his first day in office if he is elected. “General rule of thumb, if you’re going to indict a former U.S. president who is running for president in the middle of an election, at least don’t make it novel legal theories that have never been tested in court,” Ramaswamy said in an interview. “And yet, that’s exactly what’s the case here in all four of these cases, and that is just shameful.”

But not all of his rivals are taking this defensive approach. Former Vice President Mike Pence has not been shy in calling out his former boss, whose armed supporters called for Pence’s execution at the January 6 Capitol riot. “Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States,” Pence said of Trump’s January 6 federal indictment.

Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor who served as Trump’s United Nations Ambassador, has said that the accusations against Trump are "incredibly dangerous to our national security" if they are true. “I don’t even know if it’s the third, fourth, or fifth indictment right now, but what I can tell you is, it’s a distraction, and frankly, the media is talking about it nonstop.”

But some of the harshest criticisms of Trump have come from one of his former allies: Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, has been a vociferous critic of the former President since entering the 2024 primary. He has repeatedly highlighted that Trump will soon be awaiting trial in four different jurisdictions. From POLITICO:

He called Trump “a grifter.” He called him “an ugly, divisive, horrible figure.” And the fact that he’s slated to be a no-show at Wednesday’s first debate in Milwaukee? “He’s scared of me,” Christie told the crowd of area business and political leaders as well as the bank of cameras in the back.

All of these different approaches will face off head-to-head Wednesday night. But it could all be overshadowed in just a matter of hours, as the former President reports to the Fulton County Jail to be booked on racketeering and conspiracy charges.

A few of Trump’s 18 co-defendants began turning themselves in Tuesday. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has given all 19 defendants until noon on Friday to voluntarily surrender.

As we have discussed before, the Georgia case is noteworthy because of how transparent the prosecutors are being. We all saw cameras inside the courtroom as the indictment was handed to the judge, and in the clerk’s office as she signed off on the indictment. And it is quite likely that there will be television cameras inside the courtroom when the trial starts.

Furthermore, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office has said that this case, while a high-profile one, will not be handled any differently than other cases. In other words, you can expect all 19 defendants, including Trump, to be fingerprinted and have a mugshot taken at booking. Officials have noted that the jail is open for booking 24/7.

If there is one thing that both parties can agree on, it’s that the former President is inherently good at dominating news coverage. Some have said that it’s possible he could surrender early Thursday morning — before many of the morning news broadcasts and talk shows go on the air. A move like this would undoubtedly overshadow any and possibly all coverage of Wednesday’s debate.

As he maintains a commanding nationwide lead, it is clear that each indictment is only making the former President stronger with his devoted base. But conservative radio host Martha Zoller believes that he’s going after the wrong voters.

“I am that exurban and suburban woman that voted for President Trump twice and gave him money in 2020 but don’t like a number of things that have happened and he lost my vote,” Zoller said. “So if I were advising the former president, I would say don’t waste your time on your base, you need to get back voters like me.”

All of this is of course happening while Republicans try to unify behind one ultimate goal: defeating Joe Biden and winning back the White House in 2024. As national polls show a dead heat between Trump and Biden, Cobb County Democratic Committee chairman Erick Allen believes that Biden would win big in a rematch and that any other Republican could give Biden a run for his money.

And as for the debate, Allen says it will be an opportunity for voters to see if Republicans are serious about being the party of “law and order.”

The next 48 hours could very well be a defining moment for the Republican Party heading into 2024.