Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) said Wednesday on FNC’s “Your World” that the Evangelical base of Republican voters want to move on from former President Donald Trump because he “appeals to our worst instincts.”
Hutchinson said, “Nikki Haley looks like she’s going to be in there. There will be a number of candidates in there. I’ll be in South Carolina tomorrow. Two weeks I’ll be in Iowa. So this is what you do, whether you declare early or declare later, the important thing is a conservative message out there.”
He continued, “First of all, I don’t think we’ll have the same number that we had in 2016. Secondly, Donald Trump is a known quantity of what he did in 2016. I don’t believe it’s repeatable. And then, thirdly, just as Reverend Graham said, it’s time to move on. While there’s a regard for what happened during his administration, particularly the Evangelical base is saying, let’s have someone that brings out the goodness of America and not appeals to our worst instincts.”
Hutchinson added, “So that is reflective across the base, and that’s why it’s going to be very competitive the ones in there. We shouldn’t fear multiple candidates. Iowa will do a great job of looking at them, focusing, whittling it out. New Hampshire will also. So if the process works, we have to give it time.”
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