To hear how Republicans are struggling to convict former President Donald Trump, tune in to “Inside Politics Sunday with Manu Raju” at 8 a.m. ET and 11 a.m. ET.
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Former President Donald Trump lost Rep. Mike Garcia’s district by more than 12 points four years ago, and that was before Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts.
But that doesn’t mean California Republicans are abandoning Trump.
Asked if the guilty verdict had shaken confidence in the party’s standard-bearer, Garcia said “no,” adding, “I mean, the replacement is Joe Biden. There’s clearly no way I can support Joe Biden for another four years.”
Garcia is not alone: Republicans are quickly grabbing Trump’s side in many benchmark districts that will determine the next House majority, including 19 Republican districts won by Biden in 2020.
And by repeating Trump’s claims that the New York hush money trial was unfair and that he is a persecuted victim, they are aligning themselves with his outraged base, essentially gambling that the swing vote will not punish Trump if they support a convicted man as their front-runner.
“I have a lot of very smart people in my district who have a firm grasp on reality,” said Rep. John Duarte, R-Calif., a state Biden won by 13 points four years ago. “They can sniff out bullshit.”
In past political eras, candidates in difficult races would have been quick to distance themselves from any candidate with even the slightest problem, let alone one with a criminal record, but in the Trump era, with vulnerable House and Senate Democrats carefully avoiding convicting Trump and distancing themselves from Biden, Republicans have calculated that it is in their interest to stay on the team.
But while Republican committees have seen a surge in fundraising since the ruling, GOP officials are wary that focusing too much on Trump’s legal problems and embracing rhetoric of retaliation against their opponents could undermine their message as they seek to win over voters disaffected with Biden who are central to Republicans maintaining their slim House majority this fall.
“I think we need to focus on the issues that the American people care about: the economy, open borders, crime,” said Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., who serves as House Republican campaign chairman. Hudson called the ruling a “political attack” but added, “I think this election will ultimately be decided on these issues.”
House Democratic leaders said they were pleased that vulnerable Republicans came to Trump’s defence after his conviction.
“I think what’s going to follow are Republicans who seem to be doing everything they can to demonstrate their blind loyalty to Donald Trump,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington, who serves as the House Democrats’ campaign chair. “People are looking for people who are going to stand up for their communities, stand up to govern, and be true advocates for their communities.”
Democratic candidate George Whitesides, who is seeking to defeat Garcia in the fall election, said how his Republican rival would handle Trump’s conviction was an issue he wanted to highlight.
“It’s surprising that Mike Garcia, who says he supports American law enforcement, has no concerns about someone who has been convicted of 34 felonies,” Whiteside said. “I can assure you that the residents of California’s 27th District have great concerns about this case.”
Referring to Trump, Garcia said the choice comes down to between “Joe Biden, the worst president in the history of this country” and “someone with a track record and who is pro-national security and pro-law enforcement.”
Several other vulnerable lawmakers also made their positions known.
“Well, he’s the Republican candidate. I’m a Republican,” said Rep. Lori Chavez Deremer, whose Oregon district Biden won by 8 points in 2020, confirming that she will continue to support Trump even after he’s convicted.
Rep. Mike Lawler, whose New York district Biden won by 10 points, sharply criticized the prosecutors’ case against Trump and, when asked if he still supported Trump as his first choice, said “I’ve already said I do.”
“The process itself will be played out in court,” Lawler told CNN, “but we have an election decided by the American people, a nominee decided by Republican primary voters, and we should respect the process.”
Celal Gunes/Anadolu/Getty Images
Rep. John Duarte is photographed in front of the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 8, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Incumbent Democrats facing imminent threat are taking a different approach, particularly House members in districts won by Trump and Senate Democrats in heavily Republican and Democratic states.
They have sought to garner support from Trump supporters, saying little about the ruling and instead highlighting economic issues like prescription drug prices and social issues like abortion while trying to raise concerns about the character of their Republican opponents.
In Ohio and Montana, states Trump won twice, Republican candidates Bernie Moreno and Tim Sheehy are attacking Democrats Sherrod Brown and Jon Tester over the conviction, with Sheehy already accusing Tester in a campaign ad of siding with prosecutors who are trying to “send Trump to prison.”
In an interview last week, Tester struck a neutral tone when asked if he agreed with the sentence.
“I agree that no one is above the law,” Tester said. “He went through the process of trial by jury and has the right of appeal.”
Asked about Republican demands to condemn the verdict, Tester said, “Listen, Republicans think I’m serving on the jury, goddammit. They’re fighting back.”
Brown said even less.
“I made a statement,” Brown said last week. “I said exactly what I said.”
In his statement, Governor Brown said “no one is above the law” and that “our legal system must resolve this” before voters ultimately make the decision in November.
Other vulnerable Democrats were also cautious.
“The jury has made a decision. That’s the jury’s decision,” said Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pennsylvania, when asked if he agreed with the verdict. “We’ll just have to wait and see what the next steps are.”
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Rep. Richard Hudson and Rep. Stephanie Bice converse in Washington, DC, on November 2, 2023.
In the days following Trump’s conviction, Republicans floated a flurry of proposals, including defunding federal and state prosecutions targeting Trump and even suggesting a government shutdown or the impeachment of Biden.
Such actions and rhetoric have some Republicans concerned the party could drift away from its course ahead of November.
Republican Rep. Nick LaLota, running in New York, a battleground state won by Biden in 2020, warned his GOP colleagues not to engage in a “tit-for-tat” revenge plot that goes beyond targeting Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
“We should not overreact or misreact to something that has absolutely nothing to do with this hasty trial,” LaRota, who supported Trump after the verdict, told CNN.
And Senator Thom Tillis, a close ally of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, warned his GOP colleagues that it would be a “big mistake” to shift focus away from day-to-day issues like the economy and the Biden administration’s border policy as the GOP heads into the final stretch toward November.
“These are the major issues that will motivate voters in the November election,” Tillis said. “Why would we shift attention away from that? Any quick fixes to this decision don’t make sense to me.”
But members of the right have thrown all their legislative and messaging power at Trump in the wake of his conviction.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, in a closed-door meeting with the Republican Conference on Tuesday, laid out a three-pronged approach for how Republicans can use their House majority to go after the Justice Department and state prosecutors, according to multiple sources.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan also outlined a proposal to cut federal and state prosecution budgets that target “political opponents,” also detailed in the letter.
While Johnson has previously rejected calls to make budget cuts to key parts of the Justice Department – a move that would be impossible to achieve in the Senate – Jordan said he believes Johnson has become more open to the idea recently, especially in the wake of Trump’s conviction.
Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Chip Roy suggested to CNN that starting a fight over a government shutdown should be “an option” if Trump is convicted.
“I will be going to the polling places and taking that message home,” Roy said.
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump’s most staunch supporters in Congress, stormed into Johnson’s office late Tuesday armed with her own list of accountabilities, including an unlikely effort to impeach President Biden.
“Republicans across the country, and many ordinary Americans, are sick and tired of the incompetent and ineffectual Republican Party and its convention, which gets nothing done,” Greene said after meeting with Johnson.
Republicans in this camp believe there is no limit to how passionately they can talk about convicting Trump, and they see him as their golden ticket.
Rep. Ralph Norman, a hardline Republican from South Carolina, said Republicans would “absolutely” retaliate against Trump’s political opponents, including prosecutors, after November.
“What they’ve done is weaponized the process,” Norman said. “What they’ve done is wrong and unconstitutional, and it’s going to happen.”
CNN’s Shedden Tesfaldet and Morgan Rimmer contributed.
