it is sunday, july 9th. i am ali velshi. the field of republican presidential candidates is growing. a date has when lockdown for the first republican primaries and caucuses. yesterday, the republican party of iowa announced that it will hold its first in the nation caucus on january 15th of 2024. momentum will pick up next month when the party holds its first primary debate in milwaukee, august 23rd. there is going to be a problem for the country to receive most or some of the candidates together. at least one dozen republicans should be competing in 2024 but only five of them declared candidates have met the requirements to qualify for the first debate. ron desantis, nikki haley, revak wamah swami, tim scott, and donald trump, the undisputed front runner in the race right now. it s difficult to overstate how unusual this race is turning out to be. the republican party has been impeached twice already. he s running for that position again. he is leading the pack. he has been
not only that, he s been criminally indicted twice so far, he could face multiple trials in between campaign stops during primary season next year. essentially, on top of all of that, he appears to remain in control of the narrative and the eject cherie of this race. take for example the ways that those have responded to the criminal indictment last month, and how those responsive has a vault in the weeks since. have a promissory quickly made a pledge to pardon trump. tim scott said that the indictment is, quote, a serious case, but with serious allegations. at the same time, he condemned president biden and the justice department, alleging that they were targeting and hunting republicans. more interesting is how the talking points of a vote for trump s own former vice president, mike pence. shortly after the public learned about the indictment, pence said that he was, quote, deeply troubled but that no one is above the law. then, after the indictment was unsealed, he told cn
serious charges and i cannot defend what is alleged, and quote. now, pence is vowing to, quote, clean house at the highest level justice department. the very department, by the, way trying to hold donald trump accountable for what pence himself called serious charges. trump s criminal indictment in his enduring popularity among republicans and the base have forced the candidates to talk about the justice department on the campaign trail. more importantly, trump s attack on the justice department are resonating among that base of voters, and vowing to clean house at the doj. pence said that many americans have, quote, lost confidence in the justice department, probably because people like his former boss have relentlessly attacking its and decree. this is the snake eating its own tale, but more broadly, trump s attacks in the doj, once, again fuel republican skepticism of the people, the civil service to work across many agencies of federal government, and that is more palatable talking
pledge to pardon trump. tim scott said the indictment is, quote, a serious case with serious allegations but condemned president biden and the justice department alleging they were, quote, targeting and hunting republicans. more interesting is how the talking points have evolved for mike pence. shortly after the public learned about the indictment, pence said he was, quote, deeply troubled about that no one is above the law. after the indictment was unsealed, he told cnbc, quote, this indictment contains serious charges and i cannot defend what is alleged. pence is vowing to, quote, clean house at the highest levels of the justice department, the very department trying to hold trump accountable for what pence himself called serious charges. trump s criminal indictments and enduring popularity among the republican base how forced the candidates to talk about the justice department on the campaign trail. more importantly, trump s attacks on the justice department are resonating among