Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said Tuesday on CNN’s “The Lead” that he hoped former President Donald is not charged for his actions surrounding January 6, 2021.
Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Your chief competitor, the front-runner right now, Donald Trump said he was informed that he is the target of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and Mr. Trump has until Thursday to report to the grand jury. If Jack Smith has evidence of criminality, should Donald Trump be held accountable?”
DeSantis said, “Here is the problem, this country is going down the road of criminalizing political differences. I think that is wrong. Alvin Bragg stretched a statute in Manhattan to target Donald Trump. Even people on the left acknowledge that wasn’t Trump, that case would not have likely been brought against a normal civilian. So you have a situation where the Department of Justice, FBI, have been weaponized against people they don’t like and the number one example of that happened to be against Donald Trump with the Russia collusion. That was not a legitimate investigation. That was being done to try to drive Trump out of office.”
He continued, “So what I’ve said as president, my job is to restore a single standard of justice to end weaponization of these agencies. We’ll have a new FBI director on day one. We’ll have big changes at the Department of Justice. Americans across the political spectrum need to have confidence that what is going on is based on the rule of law, not based on what political tribe you’re in.”
DeSantis added, “The second thing I would say is this country needs to of a debate about the country’s future. If I’m the nominee, we’ll be able to focus on President Biden’s failures. I’ll be able to articulate a positive vision for the future. I don’t think it serves us good to have a presidential election focused on what happened four years ago in January. So I want to focus on looking forward. I don’t want to look back. I don’t want to see him, I hope he doesn’t get charged. I don’t think he will get charged. I don’t think it will be good for the country. But I have to look forward and that is what we’re going to do.”
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