Donald Trump on Friday netted endorsements for his White House bid from a handful of House Republicans from Pennsylvania, the first lawmakers to formally back the former president since his federal arraignment 10 days ago.
Trump, the clear frontrunner in the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, was also endorsed by North Carolina Lt. Gov. and gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, who earned raucous applause when he announced his decision on stage at an annual conference of religious conservatives.
“This nation needs a fighter,” Robinson said. “Someone who is willing to go onto the world stage, walking boldly, strongly, waving the American flag, saying, ‘The Americans are here, and we are in charge again.’”
Trump last week pleaded not guilty to 37 criminal counts related to his retention of classified records, and alleged efforts to stop the government from getting them back, after leaving the White House in 2021. Some of his former Republican allies, such as ex-Attorney General William Barr, have said the indictment against Trump is “damning.”
Yet many other Republicans, including most of Trump’s primary opponents, have been reluctant to wield the frontrunner’s legal troubles against him. The latest endorsements further indicate that even after becoming the first former president ever to face federal criminal charges, Trump’s grip on a major swath of the Republican Party remains firm.
As if to drive home that point, the same crowd that cheered Robinson also loudly booed another GOP presidential candidate, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, when he criticized Trump for a “failure of leadership.”
“You can boo all you want,” Christie, one of Trump’s top GOP critics, told the audience of the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference in Washington, D.C. “But here’s the thing. Our faith teaches us that people have to take responsibility for what they do,” Christie said.
Those remarks came shortly after the Trump campaign announced his…
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