Republican Senator Questions Trump’s Electability on Eve of Arraignment

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump’s stranglehold on the Republican Party showed some signs of weakening Monday as an influential GOP senator questioned the twice-indicted former president’s electability.

Most Read from Bloomberg

• Elizabeth Holmes Objects to $250-a-Month Victim Payments After Prison

• Instant Pot and Pyrex Maker Instant Brands Files Bankruptcy

• US Inflation Slows, Giving Room for Fed to Pause Rate Hikes

• Putin’s Economic Forum Puts Russia’s Isolation on Display

• Americans Say They Need $2.2 Million to Be Considered Wealthy

Trump remains the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination even as he awaits arraignment Tuesday on 37 federal charges pertaining to his mishandling classified information.

“Well, it’s not good,” Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a close ally of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said of the former president’s latest indictment.

Cornyn went on to criticize Trump for not trying to widen his appeal beyond loyal ultra-conservatives. “I think his unwillingness to appeal to voters beyond his base makes it unlikely that he could win a general election,” he said.

John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Senate Republican, called the allegations against Trump “serious” but said the Justice Department will face a “high burden of proof.”

“The president deserves his day in court. He’ll have that opportunity,” Thune said. Asked if the latest charges make it more difficult for his party to take back the Senate next year, Thune paused and said, “As you know, I’ve endorsed Tim Scott.”

Earlier: Trump Retains His Base With Risk of Political Violence in Focus

Scott, South Carolina’s junior senator, is one of several Republicans challenging Trump for the 2024 nomination.

More hard-line Republicans, however, have sought to capitalize on the charges against Trump with statements decrying what they saw as unequal justice, or to raise funds off of the indictment.

Other Senate Republicans like Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who both voted to convict Trump at his 2021 impeachment trial in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, have issued statements on the gravity of the federal charges.

“I’m looking at what I’ve seen and it looks pretty damning to me,” Murkowski told reporters Monday at the Capitol. “I don’t think that it is good for our Republican Party to have a nominee and, in fairness, the frontrunner under a series of indictments.”

Romney told reporters that he was “increasingly angry” at Trump’s actions. “The country is going to go through angst and turmoil. And that could have been avoided if President Trump had just turned in the documents when he was asked to do so.”

“This was entirely avoidable if he had just turned in the documents, why didn’t he?”

“This made no sense to me at all,” Romney added.

(Updates with Murkowski, Romney, starting in 10th paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

• Layoffs and AI Are Changing Tech’s Once-Invincible Job Market

• China’s Plane Shortage Is Good News for Boeing

• Google CEO Vows Not to Rush AI and Says Efficiency Drive Continues

• Illumina’s Sudden CEO Exit Is Just One of Many Problems Facing DNA Company

• America’s Long, Tortured Journey to Build EV Batteries

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.