As former President Donald Trump faces a list of new felony charges related to his handling of classified information, Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) said he believes the presidential candidate’s political stance the presidential election of 2024 had only improved.
“I think Donald Trump is politically stronger today than he was before,” Graham said Sunday during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”
Graham, who backed Trump in the GOP primary, called the federal charges unveiled Friday “ridiculous.”
Most Republicans “believe the law is being used as a weapon against Donald Trump,” Graham said, describing the indictment as an effort by President Joe Biden to prosecute his chief political opponent.
Trump himself has said he will emerge politically stronger from the indictment and his fundraising is already doing well. On Saturday, he and his team seemed in good spirits. He spoke to a pair of reporters on his plane, both off-the-record and off-the-record. He ordered Jimmy John’s sandwiches for lunch and McDonald’s quarter pounder, chicken nuggets and fries for dinner. He spent part of the drive back to New Jersey listening to songs by, among others, Luciano Pavaratti and James Brown.
He also appeared eager to engage in the political fight around his legal setbacks. He said he thinks congressional Republicans should bring special counsel Jack Smith to Congress to testify about the decision to indict him. “They should,” he said. “I think they should.”
Even Trump’s main rivals have acknowledged the indictment has the potential to help him politically.
“I suspect he’s going to fundraise on the indictment like he did before,” former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sunday, calling on the former president to drop the charge. race, on CNN’s “State of the Union.” He was referring to a fundraiser Trump’s team said they saw earlier this year when he was indicted in New York.
“And obviously, with a lot of Republican leaders saying this is selective prosecution, and it’s unfair, there’s a sympathy factor that’s built in,” Hutchinson added.