REUTERS/Tom Brenner
If there were any doubts that the Republican Party continues to revolve around Donald Trump, the party’s officials dispelled them Tuesday as the former president sat in Manhattan court and officially became a criminal defendant.
From the GOP’s highest-ranking legislators to its most attention-starved backbenchers, its most ardent MAGA firebreathers to its most consistent Trump critics, the party displayed remarkable consistency in closing ranks around their once—and potentially future—presidential standard-bearer.
In tweets, statements, and media interviews, all Republican lawmakers who talked about Trump’s case on Tuesday did so with varying levels of concern and outrage at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.’s decision to charge Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to alleged hush money payments.