Less than an hour after former President Donald Trump announced that he has been indicted over improper handling of classified documents, reactions poured in from opponents and supporters alike.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was among the first Congressional leaders to offer a statement on social media, calling it a “dark day” for the United States.
“It is unconscionable for a President to indict the leading candidate opposing him. Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades,” he tweeted. “I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice. House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, responded to McCarthy, saying that he “ will be doing everything I can in the Judiciary Committee to resist” McCarthy’s influence. “Trump has plenty of criminal defense lawyers. That’s not the job of Congress.”
Trump's 2024 challengers
One of the most direct rebukes came from one of Trump’s opponents for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
“With the news that Donald Trump has been indicted for the second time, our country finds itself in a position that weakens our democracy. Donald Trump’s actions — from his willful disregard for the Constitution to his disrespect for the rule of law — should not define our nation or the Republican party. This is a sad day for our country,” Hutchinson said in a statement. “While Donald Trump is entitled to the presumption of innocence, the ongoing criminal proceedings will be a major distraction. This reaffirms the need for Donald Trump to respect the office and end his campaign.”
It was a reiteration of an earlier statement, tweeted nearly 24 hours before news of the indictment broke, where Hutchinson said that Trump should “step aside & put the good of the country above his candidacy.”
Trump’s chief rival for the 2024 nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, pledged that his future administration would “bring accountability” to the Justice Department, questioning why probes against Trump moved faster than investigations against his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.
“The weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society,” DeSantis wrote. “We have for years witnessed an uneven application of the law depending upon political affiliation.”
Fellow 2024 GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy chose a wholly different tact: promising that, if he is elected, he would issue a pardon to Trump as one of his first pesidential acts.
“This is an affront to every citizen: we cannot devolve into a banana republic where the party in power uses police force to arrest its political opponents. It’s hypocritical for the DOJ to selectively prosecute Trump but not Biden,” Ramaswamy wrote. “It would be much easier for me to win this election if Trump weren’t in the race, but I stand for principles over politics. I commit to pardon Trump promptly on January 20, 2025 and to restore the rule of law in our country.”
Republican lawmakers
Other Republican lawmakers who support Trump weighed in, largely offering their defense of the former president.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a potential 2024 hopeful, called the charges against the former president "unprecedented" in a Twitter post Friday and lamented that "it’s a sad day for our country," but did not mention the former president by name.
"Parents in Virginia know firsthand what it’s like to be targeted by politically motivated actions," Youngkin wrote. "Regardless of your party, this undermines faith in our judicial system at exactly the time when we should be working to restore that trust."
Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, said that Trump’s indictment “is a moral and constitutional joke. Merrick Garland has disgraced this country,” adding that Biden is “using the justice system to preemptively steal the 2024 election” from his “most likely” opponent.
North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd tweeted that “in America, citizens are innocent until proven guilty. We must ensure that justice is administered without political bias, and the American people are rightly skeptical that the Biden administration is able to do that.”
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., called the indictment “the epitome of the illegal and unprecedented weaponization of the federal government” against Trump, adding that voters will “vote like this country has never seen before” and “will elect President Trump back to the White House to Save America.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., offered a blanket condemnation.
“We ought to defund and dismantle the DOJ,” Biggs wrote in a tweet. “I stand with President Trump.”
But one Republican lawmaker and prominent Trump critic, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, issued a particularly scathing statement saying that the former president "brought these charges upon himself."
"Like all Americans, Mr. Trump is entitled to the presumption of innocence," Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee for president, said, adding that the government now has "the burden of proving its charges beyond a reasonable doubt and securing a unanimous verdict."
“By all appearances, the Justice Department and special counsel have exercised due care, affording Mr. Trump the time and opportunity to avoid charges that would not generally have been afforded to others," he continued, adding: “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."
“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," Romney concluded.
Democratic lawmakers
On the other side of the aisle, Democrats like Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, of Rhode Island, suggested that no one is above the law.
“A week ago in Florida a former U.S. Air Force officer was sentenced to 3 years in federal prison for keeping classified documents at his home and other unauthorized locations. Presidents too must follow the law.”
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Oregon, said that “this is a serious and solemn time for our country and it cannot be taken lightly,” adding that “no one is above the law, and all who engage in wrongdoing must be held accountable for their actions. It is critical that this process play out in the judicial system without political interference.”
Others were more succinct, like Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisc., (“LOCK HIM UP,” he tweeted,) or Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif. (“Twice impeached. Twice indicted. Let justice prevail,” she wrote).
Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., simply tweeted out a photo of the Notorious BIG, with the words “And another one!” superimposed over it.