Republicans booed after saying Trump will be found guilty next year

05 November 2023

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Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is languishing in the polls, but he certainly got the GOP crowd riled up at Saturday’s Florida Freedom Summit: He predicted that former President Donald Trump would be found guilty in at least one of the criminal cases that he will be facing in 2024.

“As someone who has been in the courtroom for over 25 years as a federal prosecutor and also in defending some of the most serious federal criminal cases, I can say that there is a significant likelihood that Donald Trump will be found guilty by a jury on a felony offense next year,” said Hutchinson, a GOP presidential candidate.

The remarks elicited a cascade of boos from the hundreds of people sitting inside a ballroom at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Kissimmee, just outside of Orlando.

Hutchinson failed to qualify for the second GOP presidential debate held in Southern California, and he is unlikely to make the stage for the third debate scheduled in Miami on Wednesday evening. But he told the crowd of Florida Republicans that while Trump’s legal woes may not be evident when voters go to the polls in the state’s primary on March 19 of next year, Trump’s legal baggage could turn off independent voters and hurt down ballot races throughout the country come November 2024.

“That may or may not happen before you vote in March and it may not make any difference to you, but it will make a difference for our chances to attract independent voters in November, Hutchinson said. “It will make a difference for those down ticket races for Congress and Senate, and it will weaken the GOP for decades to come.”

“While some will ignore the destructive behavior of the former president, I assure you, we will ignore it at our own peril,” he added.

Ninety minutes later, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has made his criticism of Trump a central platform of his candidacy, was booed before he even began addressing the crowd.

After beginning his speech by sarcastically remarking, “Let me guess. You’re for Trump?” the boos became louder, and Christie became fiercer in responding back.

“Every one of those boos, every one of those catcalls, every one of those yells, will not solve one problem we face in this country, and will not make this country better. Your anger against the truth is reprehensible,” which set off louder boos.

“When you think about the problems that our country and this world is facing, when you think about that…this type of pettiness is beneath the process of electing a president.”

Christie continued — as members of the crowd continued to shout at him — “if your arguments are so strong. If your arguments are so great and mine are so bad, then just keep quiet, and let me make my awful arguments, and you can just reject them out of hand. But the problem is you fear the truth. The problem is you want to shout down any voice that says anything different than what you want to hear. And you can continue to do it, and believe me, it doesn’t bother me one bit.”

The crowd then did settle down, and listened mostly in silence as Christie made the case for the United States to continue to support Israel and Ukraine. He finally earned a large round of applause towards the end of his speech when he said that the country was a better place by hearing views that Americans don’t agree with.

“Whether it’s on a college campus in the Ivy League, or whether it’s in an auditorium in Orlando, for us to be booing and shouting down opinions we don’t agree. Let’s go and defeat the opinions that we don’t agree with. That’s what I’m trying to do, and I’m happy to take it on with you. American deserves better.”

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Diane Rado for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.

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